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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24167641">The Good Witch</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee666/pseuds/coffee666'>coffee666</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Owl House (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adopted Luz, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Bi-Curiosity, Crushes, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, First Kiss, Getting Together, High School AU, Holding Hands, Human AU, Mom Eda, Rival Relationship, Rivalry, Suburbia, Suburbian Bonesburough, edit tag: as of 8/8/2020 lumity is canon i sure do love winning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:40:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>23,807</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24167641</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee666/pseuds/coffee666</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Luz Noceda was a normal high school freshman by day, but by night, she was the creator of the webcomic “The Good Witch Azura”</p><p>Luz’s comic was fairly popular, but it wasn’t until she saw her rival, Amity Blight, wearing a fan made Azura t-shirt that Luz realized just how special her comic was.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amity Blight/Luz Noceda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>340</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2176</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luz was jolted from sleep when King started barking. Luz felt around the bed for the lump under the covers and started patting her dog’s head.</p><p>“Aw, are you dreaming?” Luz asked sleepily, breaking into a yawn. “So was I…”</p><p>Luz climbed out of bed and slogged over to her desktop computer. The tablet was still where she left it, the page open to her drawing program where she’d been coloring in some line art for a close up of Azura and Jayson.</p><p>As she settled into her desk chair, she remembered now why she’d left off here last night. She was supposed to be coloring Jayson now, but this was his first close up. She had no idea what color his eyes should be.</p><p>King finally woke up and crawled out from under the covers, shaking his shaggy black body so that his license tag jingled.</p><p>Luz decided to go with purple. She wasn’t sure why the answer came so firmly now, when it’d frustrated her last night, but she didn’t want to question the inspiration. Maybe it had something to do with whatever she’d been dreaming. She didn’t remember it now.</p><p>The shades of violet were bringing out the lust in Jayson’s eyes, not that Luz would really know anything about that.</p><p>At almost fifteen, Luz had been comfortable in her bisexual-skin for three years, but she’d still had never kissed anyone, boy or girl. No one had even ever asked her on a date, or looked at her even a tiny bit like Jayson looked at Azura.</p><p>But that was okay, Luz told herself. She was too busy trying to balance everything in her life as it was.</p><p>When she wasn’t updating Azura on strict schedule, she was doing homework or trying to find time to hang with Gus and Willow, her two best friends in the world.</p><p>And then there was work. Luz worked part time at a café her adoptive mother owned. Luz joked that it was child labor, but Eda always just laughed and threatened to close to café and open a sweatshop instead.</p><p>“You don’t know labor, kid! You have it easy!” She would say.</p><p>Luz knew Eda was only kidding, and the café really wasn’t that bad of a job. She only had to work on weekends, and usually it wasn’t too busy. Luz was a waitress, but next year, she’d be allowed in the kitchen.</p><p>She pretended to be excited by that prospect, even though the cooks had much longer shifts and less free time.</p><p>Luz’s phone alarm jolted her once more and she put down her tablet—she then picked it back up and saved her work—before jumping back onto the bed and reaching to the nightstand for her phone.</p><p>“Hey, kid!” Eda threw open the bedroom door and King eagerly darted out of the room, squeezing past Eda. “You gonna come eat this amazing breakfast I made, or what?”</p><p>“Coming! Let me get dressed!” Luz scrambled towards her closet.</p><p>“You were up, what were you doing?” Eda asked curiously.</p><p>“Homework.” Luz lied, tugging her tunic on over her camisole and opening a drawer to fish for socks.</p><p>“You spend too much time on that thing.” Eda glanced towards the computer. Luz quickly glanced over to make sure the screensaver was up, hiding the close up of sexy Jayson.</p><p>“It’s school stuff.” Luz said, and then tacked on when Eda looked skeptically. “…Mostly.”</p><p>“Well if you’re not too far behind in school, can you take a shift today after school? Just for an hour or so. Hooty called out again.” Eda rolled her eyes and growled. “I don’t know why I ever hired that unreliable drunk—“</p><p>“Hooty’s not a drunk! He’s just…weird.” Luz felt defensive over one of the few people who actually talked to her. “Besides, you’re one to talk, Miss Martini!”</p><p>Eda pretended to chase Luz down the stairs as Luz pulled her jacket and messenger back on with a laugh before skidding to a halt at the table. She picked up a plate and shoveled eggs into her mouth, tilting the plate so that King could catch the toast that fell off.</p><p>“Stop feeding that thing all <em>my </em>good food, he’s gonna get fat!” Eda picked up a bottle of apple juice from the counter and drank it straight from the container.</p><p>“Sorry!” Luz said thickly, her face muffled by bacon. She quickly swallowed and zipped up her jacket just as she spotted the school bus coming down their road from the wide sliding glass door. “Bye!”</p><p>“Wait, Luzzie, aren’t you forgetting something?” Eda asked with mocking sweetness.</p><p>Luz ran over to Eda and kissed her cheek.</p><p>“Love ya!” She then grabbed the apple juice from Eda and ran out the door.</p><p>--</p><p>Willow always saved Luz’s seat with her oversized backpack, which she dropped to the floor as Luz boarded. Luz slipped into the seat beside her and downed the rest of the juice.</p><p>“Aw man, I have to start drinking coffee.” She sighed.</p><p>“Rough day? It’s seven-fifteen!” Willow asked.</p><p>“It’s never too early to stress.” Gus turned around in the seat in front of them and peered at Luz over the edge. “You seem paler than usual, though. Are you getting enough sleep?”</p><p>“No!” Luz pulled up the hood on her zippered sweatshirt, hoping it’s bulky grey form hided her hideous school uniform for now. “School’s kicking my butt! And so is…Azura.” She said in a whisper.</p><p>Gus and Willow were the only people in the world that knew Luz was the author of The Good Witch Azura. It used to be, they were the only ones that knew about Azura, period, but then something happened.</p><p>About six months after Luz had started publishing Azura on a blogging site to a wide audience of two, someone shared it somewhere else, and then the views started shooting up!</p><p>It seemed that everyone who liked it then shared it with someone else, so by the time Luz made the next update, it had so many people alerted that had gone to number five in popularity on the whole site!</p><p>That number shocked Luz to her core. She sat, slack-jawed at her computer until nearly 4 am that night, watching the comments and likes and shares pour in.</p><p>But then it went down, whatever hype that was. Now Azura climbed to around the teens-to-twentieth most popular spot when she updated, or maybe even in the tens when a particularly juicy bit of something happened in the plot.</p><p>Luz wasn’t sure why it wasn’t more popular. It had magic, romance, and action, after all! But if comments were much to go by, it seemed that most people knew she had to be fairly young, based on her drawing and writing style.</p><p>They left tons of encouraging words, but it was obvious that they all felt it was someone’s first work. Not her magnum opus just yet, thought Azura felt like her whole world to Luz.</p><p>In a way, Luz was glad her loyal following was somewhat smaller. They were respectful of her age, and didn’t hound her for updates or ask her to draw lewd stuff between Jayson and Azura.</p><p>They didn’t ask Luz anything about herself, which she was glad for. No one on the site knew anything about her other than her username.</p><p><strong>BRUJA22 – </strong>admin.</p><p><strong>AGE:</strong> uh.</p><p><strong>LOCATION:</strong> earth?</p><p><strong>FOLLOWERS:</strong> 25.5k <strong>FOLLOWING:</strong> 7</p><p>Luz had been vague when setting up her profile and she was glad. No one needed to get in her business after all. But she often wondered what would happened if she updated her age to be truthful, or changed her profile picture from King to her actual face.</p><p>But she didn’t want to lose whatever fans she had. It was one think to let them think she was a kid, it was another to confirm it.</p><p>“Boscha beat me again.” Willow sighed as Luz tuned back into the conversation.</p><p>“I thought you planned out your whole debate argument before hand this time?” Gus asked.</p><p>“I did.” Willow squeaked. “But once I got to the podium…everyone was looking at me so…expectantly, and I just croaked!”</p><p>“You shouldn’t let Boscha get to you.” Luz said, not looking up from where she was actually trying to finish some homework before they got to school.</p><p>“You know that’s not so easy. What about you and Amity?” Willow pointed out.</p><p>“Amity!” Luz made a show of growling and crumbling her scrap paper in her fist.</p><p>“I don’t know why you hate her so much.” Gus said. “Willow was the one she hurt when Amity ditched her in kindergarten.”</p><p>“I just…do.” Luz bent back over her work so her friends wouldn’t see her face grow red. “Anyone who hurts my friends hurts me too.”</p><p>Gus took the spotlight the rest of the ride, acting out his triumph in the spelling bee against their classmate Mattholomule. Gus was two years younger than Luz and Willow and ten times as smart. Luz sometimes wondered if he was smarter than Amity.</p><p>Amity Blight was at the top of the freshman class. She had perfect grades, perfect teeth, perfect eyeliner, and a rotten attitude.</p><p>Luz was just glad she didn’t have to see Amity until first period, as her older siblings drove her to school. Amity was too good for the bus.</p><p>They were all too good for the bus, actually, Luz thought as she stepped off the bus and immediately tried to scrape gum from off the bottom of her sneaker.</p><p>“Look, it’s Baby and friends!” Boscha met them with a mocking wave as they started towards the school.</p><p> “Does she mean me? Am I a baby?” Gus asked in a whisper.</p><p>“No, she means me because I chocked yesterday.” Willow whispered back.</p><p>“Ignore her.” Luz said to Gus and Willow through gritted teeth.</p><p>“Baby Owl! Your mommy let you leave the nest this morning! Did she change your diaper first?” Boscha called and Luz froze in her tracks.</p><p>Owl. The Owl House was the name of Eda’s café, but she had no idea what Boscha meant. She wracked her mind, but the only thing was that Boscha must have seen Luz there one day and maybe saw Luz give Eda a kiss or something.</p><p>“Since when is kissing your mom something to be ashamed of!?” Luz whirled around to face Boscha, Willow and Gus gasping behind her.</p><p>“But…she’s not your mommy, is she?” Boscha placed a hand under her chin and tilted her head in a patronizing way, her pink-dyed hair framing her face. “Where’s your real parents, Luz?”</p><p>Gus and Willow gasped again in shock, this time at Boscha’s words. Even Boscha’s gaggle of friends—girls Luz didn’t know—eyed her with surprise, as if they didn’t know Boscha would sink so low so early in the morning.</p><p>“Eda is my mother.” Luz snapped. “She adopted me when I was three months old, is that not good enough for you!?”</p><p>“Apparently <em>you </em>weren’t good enough—“</p><p>Luz acted without thinking. She launched herself at Boscha with a war-cry, but was wrenched back by someone grabbing onto the hood of her jacket. Boscha recoiled as Luz stumbled back to see Principal Bump holding her back.</p><p>“Luz and Boscha! What on Earth is going on here!?”</p><p>“She tried to attack me!” Boscha cried. “You guys saw, right?”</p><p>“She started it!”</p><p>Principal Bump let go off Luz and Luz slowly turned to see that Boscha’s friends were gone. In fact, everyone who had stopped to watch the impending fight fled when the principal showed up. Only Gus and Willow were loyal enough to have stayed behind, still off to the side, ready to back up Luz’s word.</p><p>“She did, Principal Bump!” Gus said and Willow nodded. “She said Luz’s mom—“</p><p>“I don’t care what she said.” He shook his head. “That’s no excuse for fighting like uncivilized hooligans! Now, I’m going to let everyone off with a warning, as it’s much too early for me to have to fill out demerits. Now, get to class!”</p><p>Luz was too angry to care what Principal Bump said, or to even thank Gus and Willow for sticking by her side. She was doing everything she could not to cry. Her anger always showed itself in tears, as if this wasn’t humiliating enough as it was.</p><p>Luz turned on her heal and ran into the school, past her friends and principal. Even pushing past the few students who’d lingered at the top of the steps with hopes to watch someone get punched.</p><p>Luz ran faster as her vision blurred. She was going to cry, she knew. She was too worked up not to, but she wasn’t going to do it here. She made a beeline for the girls room and smacked right into someone leaving.</p><p>“—Ah!” Amity Blight stumbled back. “Watch where—Luz—Are you?”</p><p>“Leave me alone!” Luz muttered, breaking into a choked sob as she pushed past her and went into the bathroom. She locked herself in a stall and sobbed into a heavy wad of toilet paper.</p><p>What the hell was Boscha’s problem!? What, was teasing Gus and Willow not enough? That was likely it, as they didn’t react to the insults with near as much emotion as Luz did.</p><p>Willow was so shy that she just froze in place, internalizing her tears and shame. Gus would usually just calmly fire back insults made of words so big that Boscha was left trying to decipher them. Luz was the one who would cry, and that’s what Boscha wanted to see, obviously.</p><p>And what the hell was Amity getting at—asking if Luz was okay!? Like she cared! If she’d been out there with the others, she probably would have teased her right alongside Boscha.</p><p>Luz blew her nose on the toilet paper and washed her face in the sink. As the bell rang overhead, Luz prayed the halls would be empty when she left. She didn’t want Willow trying to comfort her now.</p><p>Still, Luz couldn’t bear to face leaving the bathroom yet. Boscha words still stung, though Luz knew they weren’t true. She needed something…something to lift her spirits just a tiny bit before she went to class.</p><p>Luz took out her phone. She just wanted to scroll through her photos of her with Eda and King, when a notification popped up.</p><p>You have 1 new comment(s) on “The Good Witch Azura”</p><p>Luz blinked in surprise. Usually she stopped getting comments on the newest chapter about a week after she posted it, and it had been almost two since the last update, as Luz was a tad behind schedule. She opened it, feeling that familiar spike of excitement.</p><p><strong>WITCHCHICK128:</strong> just rereading this amazing chapter again! it’s so beautiful! i can’t wait to see what jayson says to azura!!!</p><p>“Whoa…a reread.” Luz gasped. People read her stuff more than once? Intentionally?</p><p>She was just thinking of a response when the bathroom door opened. Luz gasped and shoved her phone in her pocket as some freshman girl went to a stall. Luz ducked around her and into the hallway.</p><p>She’d reply after class.</p><p>Luz slipped into her seat as the teacher’s back was turned towards the door. Luckily, Mr. Hammond kept the classroom door open most of the time.</p><p>Luz quickly got out her notebook and supplies and spread them out on the desk. Everyone was already doing the warm-up, and they only got ten minutes to do it. Luz began scrawling something out, eyes darting up to the board to make sure her response made some semblance of sense.</p><p>“Luz…” Amity whispered beside her. Luz ignored her.</p><p>“Luz…”</p><p>“What?” Luz glanced over.</p><p>“This rolled off your desk.” Amity placed a pencil back on Luz’s desk before turning back to her own work. Luz just stared at her for a moment before finishing her work.</p><p>“Alright, please take out your homework.” Mr. Hammond started collecting their assignments as Luz fished around in her bag.</p><p>Oh crap. Luz found her homework and saw where she’d left it half-finished on the bus. Shit, shit. Luz grabbed a pencil and hurriedly tried to write more answers when the teacher stopped in front of her desk.</p><p>“Ahem.” He cleared his throat. Luz looked up at him and tried to hide her guilt with an awkward smile as she handed him her homework, still with a few problems left unsolved.</p><p>“Here, Mr. Hammond. I finished it yesterday afternoon.”</p><p>Amity handed her homework over and smiled smugly. Luz stared daggers at her, but Amity only smirked at Luz. So much for whatever that was this morning.</p><p>“Thank you, Amity.” Mr. Hammond added their papers to the stack. “Luz, I expect you to be more responsible unless you want a demerit.”</p><p>“Yes, Sir.” Luz sighed.</p><p>“Some people are such slackers.” Amity muttered under her breath.</p><p>Throughout class, Luz tried to focus on taking notes, hoping that most of the lecture would be the answers for tonight’s homework, but she was distracted.</p><p>Not only was Amity distracting, flipping her freshly-dyed mint green hair over her shoulder as she took her perfect notes, Luz was also distracted thinking about that comment on Azura.</p><p>Boscha’s words didn’t seem important now. What was important was the fact that someone out there liked Azura enough to read the same chapter twice. Luz wanted to reply to them, but she did want to take her phone out in class. There’d been too many close calls already with detention—and it was only first period.</p><p>Luz finally found the time to reply at lunch. Though she sat with her friends, she didn’t share the comment with them. They’d be happy for her, of course, but Luz wanted to keep a bit of the Azura fandom to herself.</p><p><strong>BRUJA22:</strong> thank you so much!! i’m literally crying, ahh!!!</p><p>“Wow, that’s weird…” Willow said. Luz looked up from her phone and turned around. She followed Willow’s gaze to see Boscha sitting alone. “Her friends are over there with Amity. Weird that they ditched her.”</p><p>“Probably because of what she said about Luz. That was so low…and for like, no reason, too.” Gus said.</p><p>“She was just trying to get me worked up. I shouldn’t have taken the bait.” Luz watched Boshca’s friends and Amity at their table. They seemed to be talking quietly and laughing. Amity seemed to be doing homework on her lap.</p><p>That seemed like a good idea to Luz, actually. She should finish up some homework now if she wanted time to finish Azura after work.</p><p>“That reminds me, I gotta work after school. You guys coming by the restaurant?” Luz asked.</p><p>“Sure.” Willow nodded.</p><p>“Sounds good. I get iced coffee, right?” Gus asked.</p><p>“You’re too young to drink coffee, you know.” Luz smirked. “It’ll make your heart race super fast!”</p><p>“That’s why I like it!”</p><p>--</p><p>After school, Luz went straight to the café and stashed her school bag under the bar. Eda was already there, mixing herself a drink.</p><p>“How was school, kid?” Eda asked, eating a few olives straight from the jar.</p><p>“Fine.” Luz crouched down behind the bar so no one would see her quick change, tugging off her uniform tunic and pulling on her work polo.</p><p>“Really? I got a call from Bump.” Eda said it casually, though Luz could hear the almost pride in her voice. “Did you try and fight some girl who was picking on you? That’s my kid!”</p><p>“She started it! I know it was dumb.” Luz tied her apron on behind her back.</p><p>“Eh, it’s only dumb if she didn’t deserve it! I know it’ll go on your permanent record, but they erase that thing when you graduate.” She downed her drink. “Besides, colleges don’t care about that.”</p><p>“Well, I do. I don’t wanna spend my afternoons in detention.”</p><p>“How the heck are we so different?” Eda shook her head and smirked. “We you adopted or something?”</p><p>Luz’s shift seemed to drag on forever. None of the foods or drinks they served were very complicated, but it still felt like everyone had a million questions about the menu. Luz just kept a smile plastered to her face and tried not to constantly check her watch.</p><p>“How’re you guys doing?” Luz went out to the patio tables where Gus and Willow were chatting and doing homework over iced tea and coffee.</p><p>“Fine.” Willow smiled.</p><p>King lifted his head from the ground at the sound Luz’s voice and Luz heard his tail thumping on the ground. Eda only let King in the café if he stayed outside. Luz couldn’t pet him if she was going to handle food, so she just gently placed her foot on his back.</p><p>“Hey, Gus, we’re almost done, come on.” Willow whined when Gus took out his phone.</p><p>“Sorry, hold on, just reading something.” He giggled at the screen. Luz peered over his shoulder and gasped.</p><p>“Is that Azura!?” Luz asked in a hushed whisper.</p><p>“Of course. I’m your number one fan, remember?”</p><p>He did proclaim that, Luz knew. He always gave her feedback and asked her a million questions about the lore of the story. It was nice that someone cared so much, but at the same time, Luz wondered if he’d be that into it if he wasn’t her best friend.</p><p>“Wait…was that you this morning? Who left the comment?” Luz asked, feeling her heart plummeting.</p><p>“Huh? What comment?” He glanced up.</p><p>“Nothing. Never mind.” Luz could see a new group of people taking seats in her section through the window and she started back into the café.</p><p>Luz was pretty sure he’d tell her the truth if it was him or Willow leaving comments on Azura. In fact, Luz had seen them comment before, so she knew their usernames. Besides, she was pretty sure the username of the comment was Witch<em>chick </em>meaning it was a girl.</p><p>She was just making a mental note to check the person’s profile tonight out of sheer curiosity, when she halted and gasped by the new table.</p><p>“Hi, Luz!” Edric Blight eyed her nametag and waved.</p><p>“I love this place. It’s so cute!” Emira Blight looked around at all the owl themed décor before locking eyes with Luz.</p><p>Edric and Emira Blight were seniors at Luz’s school and they both happened be super hot. Neither one of them were ever going to be interested in some freshman kid, but Luz couldn’t help but get super nervous whenever they came in here.</p><p>She forced her feet to move, a nervous smile on her face, feeling her palms sweat as she took out her order pad as she approached.</p><p>“Hi! What can I get—“ Luz froze once more. As she got closer, she saw now who was sitting in between Edric and Emira. Amity Blight was sitting in between her siblings, studying the menu.</p><p>It was so weird for Luz to see Amity outside of the school uniform. She was wearing a cute pink and green striped sweater and black leggings. If she thought it was weird to see Luz in work clothes, she didn’t say so. She didn’t even sound mocking when she asked about the menu.</p><p>“Do you guys have soy milk?” Amity asked.</p><p>“Um…y-yes.” Luz nodded, feeling hate boil in her veins.</p><p>“Cool. I’ll have—“</p><p>“Aw, Mittens is so lactose intolerant!” Edric ruffled Amity’s hair and Emira laughed.</p><p>“Shut up!” Amity growled, her whole face red.</p><p>“We’ll have three Owl Lattes.” Emira said. “<em>One </em>with soy.”</p><p>“G-Got it…” Luz wrote that down and went back to the bar.</p><p>That was so weird, to see Amity being picked on by her siblings. They were even cooler than Luz thought! Someone to take Amity down a peg. If only someone would do that to Boscha.</p><p>Luz made the lattes, drinks being one of the few things she could make, before taking the tray back over to their table. She approached from behind Amity, catching heated words.</p><p>“—She’s just such a bitch lately. I don’t know what her problem is.”</p><p>“Oh, Mittens, is that why you’re hanging with us and not her?” Edric laughed. “I’m touched.”</p><p>Luz wondered if  Amity was talking about Boscha. Strange for Amity to have bitch-boundaries when she herself could definitely be one. Luz forced her smile back on and came around to the table.</p><p>“Lattes!” She began setting them down.</p><p>“Thanks, cutie!” Emira winked at her and Luz blushed, hand trembling as she set down a coffee in front of Amity without looking at her.</p><p>Amity stood up from the table to pull off her sweater. Luz tried not to stare at the swatch of pale skin at Amity’s belly and instead focused on setting down Edric’s drink.</p><p>She then glanced up and caught sight of Amity’s t-shirt.</p><p>A familiar green-haired witch in white robes was casting a magic star beam from her long staff. Her eyes sparkled in a way that could only mean that the artist was an anime fan.</p><p>It was an anime-inspired portrait of Azura. Amity was wearing a shirt of Azura.</p><p>Luz’s mouth fell open as she spotted the fancy signature—A.B.</p><p>Amity drew Azura. Amity liked Azura.</p><p>Luz dropped the latte in her hand.</p><p>“Whoa—!” Edric jumped up as hot coffee spilled over the table and dripped onto his lap.</p><p>“Oh, God, sorry! Sorry!” Luz grabbed a wad of napkins from her apron pocket and tried to mop it up. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Amity glancing down to make sure no coffee splattered onto her shirt.</p><p>“Don’t worry about it, cutie.” Edric grabbed more napkins from the table dispenser and started cleaning himself up.</p><p>“I’ll—I’ll get you another! I’m so sorry!” Luz turned on her heel and ran over to the bar and ducked down.</p><p>She let the coffee machine whirr as her heart pounded. Her clumsy mistake wasn’t what she was focused on.</p><p>Amity’s shirt. Amity liked Azura. It wasn’t just a coincidence—a character that happened to <em>look </em>like Azura, it <em>was </em>her. She had the hat and the staff and the long green braid. Heck, was that why Amity died her hair green?</p><p>Luz tried to recall if Amity had had green hair before or after Luz started posting Azura. She couldn’t remember now.</p><p>Her heart was still pounding as she finished the drink and took it back to Amity’s table. She refused to look at her, her face her shirt, as she placed the drink down over the napkins Edric had used to cover the stain.</p><p>“Thanks.”</p><p>Luz couldn’t even respond. She just gave an awkward grin and bolted. Hooty showed up a few minutes later. Luz didn’t even stop to see if he was sober. She just tugged off her apron, tossed it at Eda, and ran out to the patio seats.</p><p>“Let’s get out of here!” Luz threw her arms around King, who started wagging his tail.</p><p>“Luz, what?” Willow looked up.</p><p>“Amity.” Gus spotted her table through the window. “Let’s go.”</p><p>Luz was glad they didn’t ask questions about what Amity did. Maybe they knew her presence was just enough to get on Luz’s nerves.</p><p>It was. Luz felt her heart pounding even as she took King’s leash and they started towards her house. Amity. Amity, with her perfect teeth and perfect grades like Azura.</p><p>She loved Azura, actually, enough to make a t-shirt.</p><p>The comment, Luz realized, it must have been left by Amity.</p><p>“Oh, cramity.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Later that week, Luz sat on her bed one afternoon, textbooks and notebooks open as she attempted homework. Willow and Gus had theirs open on the floor below, and Luz envied how much easier it seemed for them.</p><p>“I hate math.” Luz said.</p><p>“We know.” Gus didn’t look up from his history book, his homework finished and sandwiched in his closed textbook. “You tell us every day.”</p><p>“Well, I suck at it!” Luz sighed.</p><p>She really wanted to get this done so she could work on Azura. She was still coloring Jayson in, and she was trying to choose colors that were distinct, but not too complicated, considering she’d have to color him in the next panel too.</p><p>“I could check your answers for you.” Willow adjusted her glasses, but Luz shook her head.</p><p>“No, I wanna get it on my own, especially since we have a test soon.” Luz tried to force herself to focus again. “Bet Amity never needs math help…”</p><p>Amity been on Luz’s mind since the café—much to her own chagrin. She’d gone home and looked at the profile that left the comment, and there was now no denying who it belonged to.</p><p>Amity’s profile picture was even a drawing of herself with the same anime-inspired art as her Azura t-shirt. Luz couldn’t help her own curiosity and read everything on Amity’s profile.</p><p>In addition to commenting on Azura at least once a month (how did Luz miss that?), she was also a follower of a few of the site’s other popular comics. Amity considered Azura in the same vein as those professional  looking comics. It was so odd.</p><p>“Can I ask a question about Jayson?” Gus asked. “Is he going to combine his powers with Azura’s when they go after Moxis?”</p><p>“What?” Luz looked up. “No! I mean—I can’t tell you. You shouldn’t even know about Jayson coming back yet!”</p><p>“I might have taken a sneak peek at your computer when you were in the bathroom.” He blushed.</p><p>“You can’t do that, you just have to wait like everyone else!” Luz tossed a pillow at him. “And, that’s it, I can’t focus anymore!”</p><p>She dove down to the foot of the bed and reached for Gus’ homework. He didn’t seem to mind sharing answers, but Willow started in with a disproving tone.</p><p>“Luz, we said we’d check yours, not give you the answers!”</p><p>“I’m checking too! I only need the last like…five answers.” Luz hurried to copy everything down and then sprung off the bed.</p><p>She landed in her computer chair and it was still spinning slightly. She picked up her tablet and was just about to start coloring when Gus leaned over her shoulder.</p><p>“…Can I watch?”</p><p>“No, that’s weird, get off.” She shoved him off her shoulder with a laugh.</p><p>Truthfully, she didn’t mind at all what a fan he was. It was just that she didn’t want to give any plot away in case she decided to change something later. And as for him watching her work, she was mid close-up and felt super self-conscious about him seeing that.</p><p>“Fine, guess I’ll just have to stalk the comments on Azura to find another super fan to yell at.”</p><p>“Okay.” Luz felt a slight swoop in her stomach at the thought of him stumbling across Amity’s profile.</p><p>“Or, what if I started an Azura fan club?”</p><p>“Uh...” Luz felt that nervous feeling grow.</p><p>“Isn’t <em>this </em>the Azura fan club right here?” Willow looked between the three of them. “No offense, Luz.”</p><p>“None taken.” Luz forced out a laugh.</p><p>She wasn’t sure why she didn’t tell them about Amity’s t-shirt. A tiny part of her had to admit things would be easier if they all just stopped hating each other.</p><p>Being Amity’s friends seemed like the impossible sort of goal an optimistic like Luz would strive for, but she didn’t want to hurt Willow by befriending someone that hurt her.</p><p>If she couldn’t crack these algebra formulas, she’d never be able to crack the labyrinth of thorns that was the heart of Amity Blight.</p><p>Well…she knew one way. The thought of marching right up to Amity, sticking out her hand, and saying <em>“Hi, I’m Bruja22 aka the creator of Azura! I like your shirt!”</em> was so impossible that it was hilarious.</p><p>She knew how that’d go. Amity would laugh and then destroy that shirt, denying that she ever even liked Azura. Willow would be so upset that Luz betrayed her and Gus would take Willow’s side.</p><p>Alright, maybe Luz wasn’t as optimistic as she wanted to be.</p><p>“Guys… what if someone at school liked Azura?” Luz began tentatively. She’d been mixing shades of gold in the corner of her doodle page on her tablet for several minutes now.</p><p>“That’d be neat, Luz.” Willow smiled.</p><p>“Do you think someone <em>is</em>!?” Gus asked in awe.</p><p>“Well,” Luz began. “I saw this comment on the latest page—“</p><p>“Oh, show me! Show me!”</p><p>“It’s gone!” Luz blushed. “I think, uh, she deleted it? But, like, what if it was someone we knew? That’d be so funny.” She forced another laugh.</p><p>“I’d be so happy for you, Luz!” Willow smiled.</p><p>“Another fan clubber!” Gus cheered.</p><p>Luz wanted to drop the bombshell. It was Amity, so stop being happy! But something felt stuck her throat.</p><p>“Guys…”</p><p>“Kids!”</p><p>Eda barged into Luz’s room, causing them all the jump. King started barking from his spot sleeping under the window, and Eda just laughed as if she’d been hoping for that. Either that, or hoping to catch Luz doing something embarrassing.</p><p>“Eda! We’re studying!” Luz scrambled to change her screen to something else.</p><p>“Well sorry, Smartypants, but there’s pizza downstairs if you brats want!” She crossed her arms and asked expectantly. “Working on your math?”</p><p>“Yeah.” Luz lied, mentally checking out of homework and into pizza.</p><p>“Good. I expect you to get at least a B on your test or your grounded!” Eda said it in such a sing-songy voice that it took a moment before the words to sink in.</p><p>“Aw, Eda—“</p><p>“I mean it kid, you don’t wanna flunk out like I did!” Eda sighed. “I want you to be successful cuz I love you! Now come eat pizza!”</p><p>“Looks like Jayson has to wait a while longer.” Luz sighed, getting up and starting towards the door. “You guys want pizza?”</p><p>“I gotta get home.” Willow shook her head. “I wrote my speech for debate, but I still need to practice.”</p><p>“You can practice in front of us.” Luz said.</p><p>“No, I can’t.” Willow seemed shrink inwards even more and Luz gaze an apologetic smile to her shy friend.</p><p>“Yeah, and I gotta finish…something else for school!” Gus giggled secretively and Luz rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Your AP classes aren’t that special, you nerd!” She gently punched his shoulder.</p><p>Despite Gus and Willow hanging out late most nights, this particular night left just Eda and Luz to have pizza together.</p><p>Eda was eating slices straight from the box, while Luz was carefully picking off sausage to toss to King under the table.</p><p>“What’s up, kid?” Eda asked. “Is it the math? We can get you a tutor if you’re really struggling?”</p><p>“No, it’s not the math.” Luz sighed and looked up. “Eda, how did you know you wanted to be my mom? I mean, we were strangers… but you took the risk anyway. What if it didn’t work out?”</p><p>Eda looked at Luz with almost surprise and then chuckled. She tore off the end of her own pizza crust and tossed it to King. She then seemed to think back.</p><p>“Strangers? Yes. You were just a baby who only ever wanted to cry, and I wasn’t sure how to be a mother. Even after they told me about you, it was all just…”</p><p>“Scary?” Luz offered. “So much could go wrong…”</p><p>“That’s true for anything. But, the reward outweighed the risk. So, I took this tiny stranger in my arms, and was prepared to let her cry all over me.”</p><p>“Did I cry?”</p><p>“That’s all you did for the next three weeks!” Eda laughed. “But you also laughed and smiled…and you grabbed my hair with your tiny baby fists, so I just knew it was worth it.”</p><p>“Sorry about that.” Luz chuckled, reaching back to the nape of her neck to touch her own short hair. She imagine some baby pulling it day and night.</p><p>“It all worked out, right?” Eda smiled and took Luz’s plate. She then looked back, seriousness in her tone. “Why are you asking? Do you have deep questions?”</p><p>“No, not really. I guess I just wanted to know about…the feeling. How to know how to take a risk.”</p><p>“Trust your gut, kid.” Eda patted Luz’s head. “Now, upstairs! Study until lights out!”</p><p>“Okay!”</p><p>Luz went back upstairs with King following. Luz let him lay across her lap on the bed and picked up her textbook.</p><p>A risk. A feeling. Someone could get hurt. Well, even if she didn’t take Eda’s lesson to heart, she at least learned a bit more about her adoption. The story she always heard before was that Eda waited and waited for a call about a baby that needed a home, until she got one about Luz.</p><p>Eda sounded so sure when she told Luz the story before. At least Luz knew now that Eda had been scared too.</p><p>Luz thought once more of the labyrinth of thorns that was Amity Blight, as impossible to crack as algebra. And with that, Luz turned her pencil over and erased Gus’ answers.</p><p>--</p><p>Luz wondered the next day at school about Eda’s feeling. She found herself searching Amity out in the hall or in class and letting her mind wander.</p><p>Once or twice Amity would catch her eye and glance away. Luz tried not to stare so much then. Amity must be mad, as her face was getting redder and redder.</p><p>It wasn’t until Lunch that Amity actually responded, catching Luz’s eye just as Luz was trying to picture Amity writing some of the comments she’d left on Azura. Luz froze and Amity stuck her tongue out at her.</p><p>Luz gasped and scowled. Never mind trying to take a risk with her!<br/>
Luz realized as she put her books in her locker after the last bell, that Amity sticking her tongue out could be seen as both mean and playful. It was definitely mean, Luz decided.</p><p>She closed her locker as her phone vibrated in her pocket. Luz glanced around to make sure no teachers were looking before checking it.</p><p><strong>GUS:</strong> meet me in the club room right now! important!</p><p>What the heck could be so important at Gus’ chess club that Luz needed to get there now? But Luz was a loyal friend. She quickly secured her bag over her shoulder and ran to the classroom.</p><p>She skidded to a brisk walk when she saw a teacher and gave them an awkward wave before breaking into a ran once more when they passed by.</p><p>Gus was waiting outside the classroom and waved when he saw her. Luz stopped to catch her breath.</p><p>“Gus, what’s wrong?” Luz panted.</p><p>“Come in— I wanna show you something!” He bounced up and down, barely containing his excitement.</p><p>“Okay…?”</p><p>Luz followed Gus into the classroom. It was mostly empty other than Willow was sitting at one of the desks. Another student was opening the classroom window, and other than the much-needed burst of fresh air, Luz didn’t see anything exciting until the student pulled their head back in the window.</p><p>“Amity!?” Luz gasped. “You’re in the chess club!?”</p><p>“Chess club?” Amity blinked. “This isn’t chess club, this is—“</p><p>“Luz—“ Gus placed his hand on her shoulder. “Welcome to the first meeting of the Good Witch Azura Fan Club!”</p><p>Luz froze, her jaw dropping. She forced herself to look at Willow who shot her a nervous glance. Gus still stood, arms wide open, the excited grin on his face slipping slightly when Luz didn’t immediately seem to love this.</p><p>She then forced herself to look at Amity, who crossed her arms and looked at Gus with something like amusement. Luz refused to believe she wasn’t patronizing him in her head.</p><p>“Gus—Can we—Talk—!?” Luz tried to form coherent words through clenched teeth, and Gus seemed to catch on. His nervous expression took over his whole face as he grabbed her arm and tugged her towards the classroom door.</p><p>“Be right back, ladies!” He chuckled awkwardly. “Talk theories among yourself!”</p><p>Gus pulled Luz into the hallway and shut the classroom door behind them. Luz managed a hushed whisper rather than yelling.</p><p>“What is she doing here!?”</p><p>“She’s a fan! I found her profile on the blog’s website! Cool, right?” Gus grinned.</p><p>“You didn’t tell her I was—“</p><p>“No! No, of course not! Amity thinks you’re just a fan too.”</p><p>“What about—How could you do that to Willow!?”</p><p>“I asked her beforehand, and she said it was okay.” Gus said. “What’s wrong, I thought you wanted to find the person at school that liked Azura? Weird that it’s Amity, I guess, but now you guys have something in common!”</p><p>“In common.” Luz felt her anger fade just a tad.</p><p>Did the thorns receded just slightly? Amity was willing to make and wear an Azura shirt and attend a club. Oh how easy it would be to come clean right now.</p><p>“Augustus?” Amity cracked open the classroom door and peered into the hallway. “I still have other extracurriculars to get to, can we start?”</p><p>“Yep! Come on, Luz.” Gus tugged her back into the classroom.</p><p>Luz tried not to look at Amity and instead took the desk beside Willow. She was hyperaware that she was in front of Amity without the supervision of a teacher. Luz decided to sit in the chair backwards, her arms and chin resting nonchalantly over the back of the chair.</p><p>She could have sworn she saw Amity’s smirk turn to a chuckle as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. Willow, who hadn’t said a word, looked to Gus to begin.</p><p>“Okay, Azurians, let’s talk—“</p><p>“Um, what?”</p><p>“Excuse me?”</p><p>Luz and Amity spoke at the same time, both laughing. Amity hid her smirk behind her hand and Luz ignored the swoop in her stomach.</p><p>“We are not calling—the fans that.”  Luz had almost said <em>my fans. </em></p><p>“It does sound silly.” Willow giggled nervously.</p><p>“Fine.” Gus crossed his arms. “You guys pick a fandom name then.”</p><p>“Hm.” Amity seemed to be putting thought into it. Luz watched her intently.</p><p>“Um. How about Warriors of Peace?” Willow blushed. “You know, like Azura is.”</p><p>“I love it!” Luz beamed at Willow.</p><p>“Okay.” Amity nodded, turning towards Willow. Luz had to admit that was one point for Amity, not mocking Willow’s name.</p><p>“<em>Okay.</em>” Gus said more firmly. “Warriors of Peace, let’s talk the big reveal next week when Jayson and Azura finally reunite!”</p><p>“Oh, I’m so excited!” Amity actually squealed. “I wonder what he’ll say!”</p><p>Luz looked over in almost shock. She’d never seen Amity this excited about anything that wasn’t getting back some test or report card. Just as Luz was thinking that it was nice to see this side of her, she quickly reminded herself of Amity’s awful side.</p><p>She called me irresponsible the other day, Luz recalled, well, because I was irresponsible and didn’t do my homework.</p><p>“I’m sure he’ll tell Azura she did a great job sealing that Moxis Portal.” Luz tried to carefully form her words so it wouldn’t give anything away that she knew about the plot.</p><p>“He must have been so worried for her!” Amity sighed, almost clutching her heart.</p><p>“What? Azura can take care of herself.” Luz said.</p><p>“But Azura’s staff was broken!” Amity looked at her. “Her Palisman was cracked!”</p><p>“She fixed it!”</p><p>“But Jayson doesn’t know that!” Amity pointed out.</p><p>He doesn’t know that, Luz realized. She went quiet, eyeing Amity now. The look in her eyes wasn’t one of mocking and there wasn’t any actually animosity in her voice. Instead, it was something Luz could only describe as fandom fire.</p><p>“True…” Luz could only manage, her face heating up at Amity’s almost playful look. She tossed her hair again.</p><p>“I wonder if her Palisman is stronger now that she healed it in that magic spring in the forest?” Willow asked quietly.</p><p>Luz tried to give Willow an encouraging smile. It wasn’t very often that Willow shared her opinion on much, especially Azura since Gus seemed to do that for the both of them, and Luz knew it must be even harder with Amity here.</p><p>“I’m sure Bruja will answer that.” Amity said and Luz couldn’t hold back laughter.</p><p>It wasn’t that she was laughing because she knew the answer—it was yes—she was laughing because of the way Amity said her username with a hard J.</p><p>“Broo-jah?” Luz snickered. “It’s Bru-huh.” When Willow and Gus glanced at her Luz worried she might be slipping up, but she quickly elaborated. “It’s <em>Spanish</em>, it means witch in Spanish. I know because I speak Spanish…”</p><p>“Oh. Duh.” Amity shook her head. “I knew it had to be something like that.”</p><p>As Gus launched into his own—very incorrect—theory, Luz watched Amity to see if she was angry about being corrected. She did glance up at Luz with a sharp look in her eyes before quickly glancing away, but Luz wasn’t sure how to interpret that.</p><p>A while later, they decided they’d come to a decent stopping point and to pick their discussion back up next week at the same time.</p><p>“I hope we get an update before the next meeting!” Gus shot Luz a look.</p><p>“Me too!” Luz said back, a slight sing-song tone in her voice.</p><p>Their math test was tomorrow, and after that, she’d be able to focus freely on drawing. At least until she got her grade back, that is.</p><p>Luz had dinner at the Owl House that night, math book open in her lap as she tried to eat a Panini without getting too much grease on her hands. She found herself watching the door, wondering if she’d see any of the Blights.</p><p>She also found herself daydreaming, imagining the latest bit of action in Azura that she couldn’t wait to plot out. The numbers and formulas in her mind faded in place of magical beams and longing looks in purple eyes.</p><p>She picked up her fork and tried to catch her reflection in it, trying to find the right gaze to use. She’d need some way to know how to draw it.</p><p>“Azura…” Luz whispered, imitating the way Jayson sounded in her mind.</p><p>“Hi, Luz!”</p><p>“—Ahh!” Startled, Luz dropped her fork and it clattered on the floor. She glared up at Hooty and reached for her fork, trying to keep her math book from sliding off her lap.</p><p>“S-Sorry.” He muttered. He had his trademark hiccups that both earned him his name and convinced Eda he was always drunk. Luz usually empathized with him, but right now she was trying to keep an eye out for cool teens. “What’re you doing?”</p><p>“Homework.” Luz tried to lean around and watch the door.</p><p>“I saw you making funny faces. Does that help you remember stuff?”</p><p>“Sure.” Luz couldn’t help but chuckle. He really was a funny little weirdo.</p><p>There was commotion outside and Luz turned around to see King out on the patio, barking at them through the window and straining against his leash tied to the fencepost.</p><p>“Hey!” Eda stepped away from the bar and banged on the window. “Silence!”</p><p>“Aw man, I think he’s barking at me.” Hooty muttered as King stopped barking and laid down to in their direction.</p><p>“No, I think he’s barking at me because he wants my sandwich.” Luz said unconvincingly.</p><p>“He hates me! He always tried to bite me…”</p><p>“No, he just…” Luz had to admit that ever since she got King as a puppy for her ninth birthday, he always seemed to bark and growl when he heard Hooty’s voice.</p><p>But she didn’t have time to wonder about that, because she now saw Edric and Emira Blight walking in the café. Luz gasped, torn between ducking down and hiding under the table, and doing an effortless pose in case they looked over.</p><p>She settled for an awkward mix of both, standing up from her chair but crouching halfway under the table. Her eyes stayed locked on the twins as Eda handed them a to-go bag of something.</p><p>Edric caught Luz’s eye and Luz felt her face flush when he waved to her. Luz sprang up to her feet and waved back.</p><p>“Hi Luz!” Emira said. “See ya’!”</p><p>They were leaving now. Luz had to do something, say something to prolong their interact, but as much as she wished it, she didn’t have very much in common with cool upperclassmen. She could only think of one thing.</p><p>“T-Tell Amity I said hi!” Luz blurted.</p><p>“Okay!” Edric nodded. “Bye!”</p><p>“Cool.”</p><p>Luz seemed to deflate slightly as they walked out, as the implications of what she just said sunk in. They were going to tell Amity she said hi. She couldn’t take that back now.</p><p>They seemed to be getting along during their club meeting, but they weren’t friends. Luz couldn’t shake the feeling that by being friendly outside the club she was hurting Willow. But Gus <em>had </em>said Willow didn’t mind that Amity was in the club.</p><p>Luz quietly picked her book back up and kept working now. She’d be up all night if she were to let herself worry about Willow and Amity or whatever feeling she forgot to even check if she felt, and then she’d never be able to pass her test.</p><p>Luz actually slept up until her alarm the next morning and not a minute later. She sprang out of bed and grinned, posing confidently and catching her reflection in the dresser mirror.</p><p>“I <em>am </em>going to pass that test!” She told herself. King looked up at her in the sudden excitement before blinking sleepily and curling back up.</p><p>Luz put on her uniform and shoes. She zipped her jacket as she went downstairs. Eda was leaned against the kitchen counter sipping coffee.</p><p>“Hey, Luz. You want breakfast?” Eda asked.</p><p>“That <em>is</em> the key to a great day!” Luz announced.</p><p>“Go nuts!” Eda tossed Luz a pre-packaged muffin.</p><p>Well, not every day could have a special mom-made breakfast, Luz decided. Especially when Eda had to worry about making sure the café was always being managed. Luz ate the muffin and waited for Eda to go take a call from Hooty before she poured herself her own cup of coffee.</p><p>“Mmm.” She sipped. “That is gross.”</p><p>Still, she felt perfectly energized and ran to the bus stop. Gus didn’t seem nervous at all, but Willow was still going over her notes. Luz went over her own, forgetting to ask Willow a question that had been plaguing her.</p><p>The only other person waiting outside the classroom door with such eagerness was Amity. Luz felt her heart skip a beat for some reason and she was torn between waving or not. Luckily, Amity was reading through her notebook, too distracted by reciting formulas under her breath to notice Luz.</p><p>Luz stared down at the test paper, purging all thoughts but math from her mind. She didn’t think about how Willow and Gus weren’t going to have to take this test until their period, or the way Amity’s pencil scratched with fever just a few feet away right now. Luz took a deep breath and began.</p><p>“That…wasn’t so bad.” Luz was just relieved it was over as she handed in her paper and followed Amity out into the hall.</p><p>Amity didn’t look up. Her brow furrowed and her eye makeup gave her an unapproachable look. Luz certainly didn’t feel anything resembling that feeling Eda meant.</p><p>“I missed one.” Amity whispered so softly that Luz almost didn’t catch it. “I know I did.”</p><p>“Hey, I probably missed a bunch, but that’s okay.” Luz shrugged. “We tried our best, right?”</p><p>Amity looked at Luz now, the sharpness of her face causing Luz to stop in her tracks. Luz was sorry she even spoke and then it was as if Luz’s words finally struck through that touch exterior. Amity chuckled.</p><p>“You’re right.” Amity smiled.</p><p>“And no one’s perfect, right?” Luz went on, desperate for more of that laughter.</p><p>“Definitely not.” Amity laughed again and so did Luz.</p><p>With reluctance, Luz had to stop by her locker. As she slowly turned the corner, she waved and Amity nodded. Only when she was alone again, did Luz feel a pang when thinking of Willow.</p><p>But that didn’t matter. The real world didn’t. Luz was done studying and could now freely focus on Azura.</p><p>Luz doodled concept sketches all through her notebook for the rest of the day. Magic beams and outlines of faces overtook her notes.</p><p>Luz spent the next few days working on the update. She definitely wanted it out before the next club meeting. Desperate to see Gus’ reaction to finally seeing Jayson up close and Amity’s reaction to a certain something else.</p><p>Luz’s pang of guilt still remained stuck in her heart all through the weekend until she caught Willow alone one day by her locker. It was rare to find her without Gus unless they specifically planned something girly, and even then, Gus liked a lot of traditionally feminine activities.</p><p>“Hey,” Luz started. “Are you sure you’re okay with Amity being in our club? Gus said you were, but I just wanted to ask. You can tell me anything, you know.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m okay.” Willow said. “I mean, as long as she’s being nice then we should be too. It’s better when everyone gets along, right? And I mean, all of that elementary school stuff was so long ago…”</p><p>“Right! Exactly!” Luz didn’t mean to sound so enthused and reined it back in. “We definitely should be nice if she’s being nice. Otherwise <em>we’re</em> the bullies!”</p><p>“Oh, Luz.” Willow laughed and rolled her eyes. “Just admit that you want to be Amity’s friend because of…you know…”</p><p>“I know what!?” Luz snapped, feeling her whole face flush. She tried not to know, mentally begged Willow not to go there.</p><p>“Because you like Edric and Emira.” Willow poked her arm teasingly.</p><p>“Oh, whatever, so does everyone!” Luz swatted her hand away, sighing with relief. “Besides, Amity is tolerable! Boscha, on the other hand—“</p><p>Luz didn’t get a chance to rant about how Boscha was. The bell rang and Luz quickly waved goodbye before running to her last class. Just one more hour until freedom.</p><p>After school, Luz stopped by the café only to obtain fuel for the night ahead. The club meeting was tomorrow and Luz still had to post everything.</p><p>Armed with plenty of iced tea and more muffins, Luz took the food back to her room, turned on her radio, put her phone on silent, and got to drawing.</p><p>She was so into what she was doing that she didn’t hear Eda come home until she knocked on Luz’s door. Luz glanced at the time in the corner of her screen and was surprised to see it was past six.</p><p>“Hey, Luz.” Eda peered in. “You want some dinner? I can whip something up.”</p><p>“I already had something.” Luz lied.</p><p>She’d switched her screen over to her docs page where she kept some of her school work and she prayed Eda would hurry up and leave so she could keep drawing.</p><p>“Hm. Well, alright. Let me know if you want me to make you something else.” Eda lingered by the door a moment longer. “Those twins you’re friends with came by again. They brought their sister from your class.”</p><p>“Really?” Luz looked over.</p><p>“I think she was looking for you. I made sure to tell her you always work on Saturday mornings.” Eda smirked.</p><p>“Uh, thanks. Yeah, it’d be cool if they came by.” Luz wondered if her own clumsiness could withstand that.</p><p>“Hm.” Eda stared at Luz’s screen for a second. “Don’t overdo it, okay? I’m only asking for a passing grade.”</p><p>“I know, I won’t.”</p><p>Eda left and Luz finally opened her drawing back up and kept working. This time, she tried to be more aware of the time. She had to remembered to reach for her almost-untouched tea so that she wouldn’t get dehydrated.</p><p>It was almost one in the morning when Luz finally uploaded all of the pages. She was so tired and her stomach was starting to remind her now that she needed dinner.</p><p>Luz opened her desk drawer for a pack of emergency crackers before taking her phone off of silent. She turned off her monitor and crawled into bed, laying her phone on her chest so that she’d be alerted when it happened.</p><p>She’d been staring at her drawings for so long that they seemed to swim in front of her eyes even when she closed them. She could see Jayson crushing Azura in a hug, the pure relief in his eyes.</p><p><em>“I was so worried something happened to you… How could you go like that?” </em>Jayson put his hands on Azura’s shoulders, a first touch that was as exciting to draw as it was to imagine.</p><p>
  <em>“Jayson…”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Your Palisman is cracked! How were you to defend yourself!?”</em>
</p><p><em>“Jayson…” </em>Azura lifted her staff into frame, revealing the startling white living dove on the end to be in pristine condition. She laughed lightly. <em>“I can’t believe you were so worried! Didn’t Elder Marcus tell you I can handle myself?”</em></p><p><em>“Marcus told me you were his most talented pupil…” </em>Jayson then put his hands on Azura’s face, cupping her cheek. Luz had had to look at pictures of real people to reference for that. <em>“…But now I see that was an understatement. You’re amazing…”</em></p><p>Luz wasn’t sure how long she fell asleep for, but she was awake when her phone buzzed. Adjusting her eyes to the light of the screen, Luz opened the notification alerting her to the very first comment on the update.</p><p><strong>WITCHCHICK128:</strong> ahhh!! i knew jayson would have been freaking out as soon as she left!! i’m losing my mind!! i can’t wait to talk about this update with my friends tomorrow!!</p><p>Friends. Friend.</p><p>Luz laughed, feeling a blush cover her face as he held her phone close to her chest. Willow’s words echoed in her mind about being nice as long as Amity was nice—as did Eda’s about that feeling of just knowing it’s worth taking a risk for a person. Maybe there was a word for that feeling, but Luz fell asleep before she could think about what it might be.</p><p> Luz was tired the next day at school. Tired, yet on a certain high. Not only did Amity love the update to Azura, but the comments had been flooding in all night. Luz smiled whenever she read one.</p><p>“What did you guys think?” Luz asked Willow and Gus in a hushed whisper. She’d put her phone on silent to resist the urge to read each comment or see where Azura was in terms of the site’s most popular comics that day.</p><p>“I loved it!” Willow whispered back.</p><p>“Jayson is so cool!” Gus nodded. “But, we’ll talk more at the club meeting. I had this idea too, about electing some club officers.”</p><p>Amity’s reaction intrigued Luz the most. She’d seen what Amity wrote, but she was dying to hear all of that in person, In class, Amity would occasionally look up from taking notes and smile. She even mouthed <em>“see you at the club!” </em></p><p>Finally, Luz’s last class was wrapping up. The teacher was assigning them some sort of homework that Luz was too excited to pay attention to. She could always get the page numbers from Gus later.</p><p>When the bell rang, Luz jumped up and ran towards the club room. She didn’t even bother to put some of her stuff in her locker. Her school bag dropped papers and bumped her legs as she ran. When Luz turned the corner and spotted the club door, she slowed when she heard Gus settle down.</p><p>“Settle down guys!” Gus chuckled, sounding pretty nervous. Luz slowed and listened. “I’m sure we all have thoughts we want to share, but we can talk more when Luz gets here.”</p><p>“Who?” Asked an unfamiliar girl’s voice.</p><p>“Well, where is she?” Asked another.</p><p>More members, Luz realized with a quiet gasp. There were more kids who wanted to talk about Azura! She felt nervous now too as she placed a hand on the doorknob. With excitement, Luz opened the door and stepped in.</p><p>“There she is!” Willow said.</p><p>Luz grinned and took in the sight of the club room. A girl she didn’t know was sitting in a chair, leaned back with her feet on the desk. Another had her phone out but was staring over the screen at Luz, sizing her up.</p><p>“Hi, Luz!” Gus said. “Y-You wanna sit?”</p><p>Luz knew now why he’d sounded so nervous. Luz’s heart plummeted into her stomach, the smile slipping off of her face. Azura fans or not, these girls were Boscha’s friends.</p><p>Luz spotted Amity now. She was sitting beside the last new member. Luz felt impossibly worse as she eyed the girl who was now standing up and talking as if she owned the place.</p><p>“Didn’t you say we needed officers? I nominate <em>myself </em>for president! Who seconds?”</p><p>The other two girls did and Luz didn’t hide her anger. She slammed the door behind her, causing everyone to jump.</p><p>“No!” Luz snapped at her.</p><p>“Excuse me? What the hell is your problem?”</p><p>“No, not happening!”</p><p>Luz could not let the president of the official Good Witch Azura fan club be Boscha.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>pls comment im quarantine lonely</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What’s your problem?” Boscha glared at her, crossing her arms.</p><p>“My problem is that you cannot be president! Who do you think you are?”</p><p>Luz tore her gaze away from her and surveyed the rest of the room. Both of Boscha’s friends were watching silently. Amity had turned away from both of them, but Luz wouldn’t let her skirt responsibility.</p><p>“Did you invite her here!?”</p><p>“I can be in whatever club I want.” Boscha said, stepping in front of Amity’s desk to stop Luz from addressing her.</p><p>“No, you can’t.” Luz turned to Gus. “Kick her out.”</p><p>“I…uh, can’t.” Gus wasn’t looking at Luz directly. “You can’t bar someone from joining a club without a reason.”</p><p>“Here’s a reason, she doesn’t even care about Azura!”</p><p>“You don’t know me, Luz-er!” Boscha started.</p><p>“I know enough.” Luz snapped.</p><p>“Hey, can’t we just talk about the comic?”Asked the girl with the phone that Luz didn’t know.</p><p>“Yes, I wanted to talk about—“</p><p>But Luz wouldn’t let Amity finish. She started in on Boscha again without holding back. Where Luz got red faced and emotional when yelling, Boscha snapped back without getting worked up.</p><p>Both of Boscha’s friends watched as if it were entertaining. Amity stared down at her lap and Willow crouched in her seat, her hands covering her head.</p><p>“Hey!” The classroom door slammed open and Luz jumped. She turned to see a teacher standing in the doorway. “Excuse you, but we’re having tutoring across the hall, and all of this yelling is disrupting my students! Now, keep it down or you will all be sent home.”</p><p>“Yes, Sir. Sorry!” Amity rose from her seat and addressed the teacher. He looked at her for a moment before nodding and closing the door.</p><p>“We’re going anyways.” Boscha turned to her friends and gestured for them to follow before looking back at Luz. “But I’m coming back next week, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop me. Come on, Amity.”</p><p>Amity followed Boscha’s friends towards the door, before stopping at the threshold. She lingered, looking back at Luz for a long moment.</p><p>Though Luz’s heart pounded now out of something other than anger, she didn’t let anything show on her face but disappointment. Amity followed them out and closed the door.</p><p>--</p><p>“I should have expected this!” Luz slammed down a mostly empty glass of iced tea onto the kitchen counter in the Owl House. Her work polo and apron were spotted with a night’s worth of grease and once-boiling water.</p><p>“What have I always told you, kid?” Eda looked over from washing dishes in the sink. “You can’t trust anyone!”</p><p>“I thought she was…finally…nice! For one week, I really thought…ugh!” Luz couldn’t stop thinking about Boscha’s infiltrating her club, and that wasn’t even the worst of the week’s events.</p><p>Once Boscha decided she like Azura, so did everyone else. A wider audience was what Luz had always wanted, but not like this. Boscha’s friends talked loudly at lunch about their favorite parts—mispronouncing character names and overlooking important scenes in favor of just the romance. Jocks and cool rich band kids with expensive instruments all wore Azura merchandise of their own making.</p><p>Luz’s only saving grace was school uniforms. The only part of their clothes that weren’t regulated by the uniform were their socks, and the adornments on their backpacks. This meant people had to get creative about how they displayed the fad. Luz had to admit they were resourceful with the pins made of laminated paper and the star beams drawn on people’s socks with fabric paint—but she still hated all of it.</p><p>“She was just using us.” Luz sighed. She hadn’t actually told Eda the details of everything that happened, wanting to keep the Azura’s existence a secret, but Eda was getting the general idea that Luz was very, very, wronged.</p><p>“So sorry to hear it, Luz.” Eda dried her hands on a dish towel and opened the fridge for a drink.</p><p>“And then—there was the test—ugh!”</p><p>Luz’s class had gotten the results of their math test back the other day. To Luz’s surprise, she’d gotten a B. She was so excited that she turned to the person beside her to share the news, only to remember it was Amity.</p><p>Amity had the audacity to congratulate her and flash Luz that bright winning smile. For a half of a half-second, Luz considered smiling back. Considered forgetting everything for just long enough to share a genuine moment, but she just couldn’t. She glanced away, but not before catching sight of Amity’s grade—a perfect one-hundred percent.</p><p>“Well, you know what they say; when you’re upset, put all your energy into work!” Eda grinned at Luz and Luz sighed and picked up a tray.</p><p>The rest of the week went by that way too. Luz took a shift at the café almost every day just to avoid having to see the pity in Willow and Gus’ eyes. Willow insisted she was fine, and that losing Amity’s friendship for the second time in her life wasn’t bothering her, but Luz was certain she wasn’t alone in this heart-twisted turmoil.</p><p>Gus was taking things better than Luz would have expected—or wanted him to. He actually seemed to <em>like </em>that so many kids at school liked Azura, no matter how much Luz reminded him that they were all <em>fake </em>fans. He embarrassed himself daily trying to sit with rich bands kids at lunch to discuss theories.</p><p>The Warriors of Peace still went on in the club, even without half of the original members. Luz passed by the classroom on the way out of school and listened to the loud commotion—cool kids talking and laughing over the desperate attempts of Gus trying to reign them in and steal the conversation back to the actual plot of the comic.</p><p>Willow didn’t go to the club anymore, and Luz didn’t know if Amity did either. But Luz imagined that she did. She had to, as this was all her fault anyways.</p><p>Luz hadn’t even started outlining the next Azura update yet. She hadn’t lifted her stylus since that last night she’d posted Azura and Jayson’s big scene. She just had no motivation, not when no one actually cared what she was doing.</p><p>Luz overheard Boscha and some girl from the softball team—a girl with her own car, despite being a freshman—discussing Azura in the hallways.</p><p>“They’re going to kiss next time, aren’t they?” The softball girl smirked and touched Boscha’s shoulder.</p><p>“Of course!” Boscha flicked back a strand of pink hair. “Everything’s led up to it, right Amy?”</p><p>Wrong, Luz thought. Azura and Jayson wouldn’t kiss for another ten chapters. It was like this shallow kids had the reading comprehension of a two-year-old. Right now wasn’t a perfect time for them to kiss! Their romance hadn’t even built up yet!</p><p>Luz glared at them, audibly growling, when she finally noticed who was trailing behind them. Amity dragged her feet, walking behind the two of them and looking as if she hated doing so. She stared at the floor, her eyes dull.</p><p>“Amy!” Boscha snapped, her tone even making Luz flinch. Amity looked up. “I asked you a question!”</p><p>“S-Sorry.” Amity turned red. “I mean—sure. I think…uh, Azura’s getting really good.”</p><p>“It is. Bruja knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s practically a professional—“</p><p>Luz covered her mouth with her hand to keep from bursting out laughing. It was the first time she’d laughed in days, but not just because of the irony of Boscha inadvertently praising her, but because Boscha pronounced Bruja the same way Amity used to.</p><p>Amity looked over and locked eyes with Luz across the crowded hallway. Luz felt her lungs stall and her heart start pounding. All signs of the anger she’d been feeling the past two weeks, but different. For just a minute, Luz wasn’t so angry—not at Amity, anyways.</p><p>She knew Amity was thinking what she was thinking, and this time neither one held back their laughter. Luz could only barely hear Amity over the crowd of the hallway and of Boscha looking back and demanding to know what was so funny, but the sound was there.</p><p>And Luz liked to imagine it was some form of an apology. Not a very good one, a small one in comparison to the problem, but that was that.</p><p>Luz took a shift that afternoon, despite Eda suggesting that she take the day off. Luz had to admit that she was working more now that she ever had before. Her tip savings in a secret drawer in her room was almost overflowing from its tin box, but working was the only way to avoid the urge to draw.</p><p>She missed Azura, but she couldn’t face her, not with all the story comments and theories from the popular kids flowing through her mind. Just knowing they would see what she drew—had seen it—tainted it all somehow.</p><p>Working was a way to avoid Willow and Gus, too. When they did stop by, Luz just told them she was too busy to stay at their table and talk. Eventually, they’d get the hint and leave.</p><p>One Friday afternoon, Luz was especially salty. It’d been three weeks since Boscha had taken over Luz’s main source of happiness, and the fact that she’d gone out of her way to look Luz in the eye and laugh at her during science lab didn’t help. Luz resisted the urge to throw a beaker full of acid at her stupid face.</p><p>She’d finally calmed down during her shift afterschool. There was just something about the calming atmosphere of the café and the monotony of work that made it hard to be anything but bored and a little sleepy.</p><p>Luz just finished serving an old couple before picking up the next order. It was a soy latte for one of the outdoor tables. Luz breathed a sigh of relief. If it were Willow and Gus out there waiting for her, then they would have both ordered something, usually tea.</p><p>Luz made the drink and carried it through the café. The person at the outdoor table was obscured by a poster on the window advertising an upcoming karaoke night. All Luz could see were their shoes.</p><p>She froze, half in and half out, the door resting against her shoulder. Luz wasn’t sure whether to be completely angry, considering their mutual exchange of laughter, so she settled for half angry.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Luz asked, stepping completely outside and towards the table.</p><p>“Getting a drink.” Amity looked at her and they locked eyes for a moment before Luz snapped to her senses and put the coffee down.</p><p>“Fine, enjoy.”</p><p>“Luz, wait.” Amity said. “Sit…please. We need to talk.”</p><p>“I don’t really have anything to say.” Luz lied.</p><p>“Well, I do.”</p><p>Amity had such a depressed look in her eyes that Luz was reminded of how she’d looked that day in the hallway before they’d noticed each other. As if her body had a mind of its own, Luz pulled back the chair across from Amity and sat down.</p><p>“Luz, I’m sorry Boscha ran you and your friends out of the club, but she—“</p><p>“Let me guess.” Luz cut in. “You’re going to say that Boscha isn’t really as bad as she seems, and I should just give her a chance, right?”</p><p>“No, she’s a bitch and she sucks!” Amity sighed, slumping over in her chair. “She’s only doing this because of me. She showed up and pulled me back in because she hated that I was trying to cut her out.”</p><p>“Why did you let her, then? She’s horrible, and you still follow her around. Me and Gus and Willow were actually nice to you.” Luz tried to rein in her emotions, watching Amity with her arms crossed.</p><p>“Because she forced me.” Amity’s voice wavered. “She knew exactly what to say and do. She knew I cared about Azura, so she started caring about it to, showing up in the club to remind me I can never get rid of her. She knows everything about me because she was my first friend—“</p><p>“She was not!” Luz slammed her hands down on the table, rattling the untouched latte. “What about Willow!? It wasn’t enough to dump her once, you had to do it again?<em>”</em></p><p><em>“</em>You don’t get it, Luz!” Amity’s face was red. “I didn’t want to stop being Willow’s friend, but I had to! My parents always said we needed to have perfect grades, but it didn’t come as easy to me as it did for Ed and Em. I had to sacrifice my whole childhood and work my entire <em>life </em>to get to the top! By the time I was ready to have friends, it was too late. Everyone had moved on from me…except her.”</p><p>“Amity…I…” Luz couldn’t imagine being forced to do all Amity did. Luz always thought Amity <em>liked </em>spending every second at various extracurriculars.</p><p>“Comics, Azura…those were the only things that kept me happy when I spent every second either studying or following Boscha around. I was so happy when I realized I wasn’t alone, that you guys liked that stuff too.” Amity looked up at her. “I’m sorry I let her ruin that.”</p><p>“No, I was wrong.” Luz’s body seemed to again, act without thinking she reached out and placed her hand on top of Amity’s. “I shouldn’t have blamed you for what she’s doing. I didn’t know you were so lonely… you know, you can always hang out with us. Just come here, she’ll never find you.”</p><p>“True.” Amity seemed to realize. “She does hate this place—no offense.”</p><p>“None taken.” Luz chuckled.</p><p>She then realized that she was still touching Amity’s hand and despite her paler skin, her hand was very warm. Luz blushed and pulled her hand away hiding them both in her lap.</p><p>“You know…” Amity looked at her with a smirk. “It would be so much easier if we had the club meetings here, so Boscha wouldn’t know. She wouldn’t be able to join either, because it wouldn’t count as a school club!”</p><p>“Love it! My mom won’t mind as long as we order something!” Luz grinned. “I can text Gus and Willow about tomorrow afternoon.”</p><p>“And, um,” Amity tucked her hair behind her ear. “Maybe Lydia too? She kinda hangs around Boscha, but she really does like Azura! She pronounces the names right and everything.”</p><p>“Okay.” Luz nodded, realizing she actually did trust Amity’s judgment. Somehow she knew Boscha couldn’t pull her back in.</p><p>“Cool.” Amity glanced down at the table and Luz followed her gaze to where their hands were inches apart.</p><p>They both jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the glass window. Luz turned to see Eda with an overloaded tray carefully balanced against her shoulder. She knocked again and gestured for Luz to get back inside.</p><p>“I, uh, should get back to work.” Luz reluctantly stood up and pushed the chair back in.</p><p>“Right.” Amity reached for her latte now and took a sip.</p><p>“That’s not cold, is it?” Luz asked, reaching for the door.</p><p>“No.” Amity smiled. “It’s perfect.”</p><p>--</p><p>Gus and Willow loved the idea of reforming the club outside of school. Luz told them at lunch when they’d have privacy. She was hoping that Amity would be around to share the credit, but she told Luz that she had some extra credit to do, and would be eating lunch in one of the classrooms.</p><p>Luz wondered if that was truly because she didn’t want to have to see what Boscha would do when Amity purposely didn’t sit with her.</p><p>After school, Luz went right to the café and changed in the bathroom. She wasn’t working tonight, but she didn’t want to wear her uniform. Instead, she wore denim shorts, a t-shirt with an alien face on it, and a fuzzy sweatshirt with cat ears on the hood.</p><p>She took the outdoor table and waited. Gus and Willow showed up first, with Amity next. Amity wasn’t wearing the school uniform either, and had changed into her Azura shirt. Another girl followed behind Amity. She was wearing a softball uniform and cleats and carried a duffle bag of equipment.</p><p>“Sorry about all this, I came straight from practice.” She put the duffle bag under her chair and sat down beside Gus, who turned red at the prospect of sitting beside a girl that wasn’t his friend.</p><p>“It’s cool. You’re Lydia?” Luz also tried not to turn red when Amity sat beside her.</p><p>“Yeah! You know, I pass this place all the time, but I’ve never been here. Is the coffee good?” Lydia asked.</p><p>“Yep! Fresh! I, uh, work here.” Luz said. “Oh, uh, and my mom owns it.”</p><p>“Cool! I like the owl stuff!” Lydia said, and Luz knew in that moment that she wasn’t just saying that. She really meant it.</p><p>Gus led the discussions on theories, and Luz actually felt as if cogs in her brain were turning for the first time in weeks. The cobwebs that clung to them slowly fell away, and Luz was starting to remember everything she loved about her own work.</p><p>“I just love how cool Marcus is!” Lydia laughed.</p><p>“Marcus is…an old man.” Amity chuckled. “But I suppose he is very wise, and he was probably a good duelist back in his prime.”</p><p>Luz bit back a smirk at what they didn’t know. Marcus was old and wise, but he was still strong. He was going to use all of his power and sacrifice himself at an upcoming time in the story, and Luz was the only one who knew. She hadn’t even told Willow, considering.</p><p>“Marcus is my favorite character too!” Willow gasped.</p><p>“Hell yeah!” Lydia held out her hand for a high-five and Willow looked startled before high-fiving her.</p><p>“I still think that Marcus’ Palisman raven has been spying on Azura’s adventures to keep an eye on her for him.” Gus said. “That’s why he never seems worried when she leaves, because he can just watch her from afar.”</p><p>“Oh, I think I remember you telling me and Brent that theory at lunch one day!” Lydia looked at him. “I think you’re right! There’s always silhouettes in the background that look suspiciously like birds!”</p><p>Luz stopped smirking and raised an eyebrow at Gus showing she was not amused. That was not some theory Gus made up, but rather something intentional that Luz told him about. Gus looked back as if to say ‘<em>don’t blame me, I’m just trying to impress her’</em>.</p><p>Luz listened to everyone discuss the plot and characters and couldn’t help but feel bursting with the want to draw. Her slump was gone. She no longer cared about posers, because she knew she had real fans too.</p><p>That night, for the first time in weeks, Luz picked up her stylus.</p><p>The Owl House did not just become a haven for the Warriors of Peace, but it seemed to become a place the kids wanted hang at after school, club or no club meeting.</p><p>Amity sat at a corner table and studied every day that Luz worked. Luz always brought her soy lattes and peered over her shoulder at her math.</p><p>Lydia brought some of her friends from the team for the next meeting, after assuring Luz that they were ‘cool’. A tall guy in the sophomore class named Devon went on and on about the Azura art style and a junior guy named Cliff said that Azura should get adapted into an anime.</p><p>“It should be an anime!” Luz agreed, slamming her fist on the table and earning a laugh from everyone.</p><p>Luz was updating Azura regular again, but they didn’t always have to talk about it. It wasn’t that they didn’t care—they very much did, but there was something else. They didn’t just come to the Owl House for that—Luz realized what it really was.</p><p>A place to escape Boscha. Escape cliques or preconceived notions. Nobody had to act like a jock or a nerd or a goth. Everyone was themselves and they were all cool.</p><p>“Just keep your eye on the ball.” Lydia was helping Willow with her upcoming debate, leaning in close with her hand on Willow’s shoulder.</p><p>“Uh…ball?” Willow squeaked.</p><p>“The metaphorical ball. The words. Just focus on your argument and pretend the audience isn’t there.” Lydia smiled. “Then you won’t be so nervous.”</p><p>Luz bit back a smile as she approached their  table. For advice on how to not be nervous, they both seemed rather pink-faced. Luz handed them their hibiscus waters before moving to the next table.</p><p>“It’s called One Piece, and it’s the best.” Cliff was handing Gus a manga.</p><p>“Uh, it’s printed backwards?” Gus flipped through it.</p><p>“Japanese reads this way.” Amity explained.</p><p>“Oh, uh, I knew that!” Gus said and Cliff laughed.</p><p>Amity caught Luz’s eye and slipped out of the booth, following Luz as she carried the empty tray back to the counter. Luz longed to sit beside her and chat and touch hands the way Lydia did with Willow, but she still had an hour of her shift left.</p><p>“Boscha was here.” Luz told her. She’d been saving that bit of information for when they were alone.</p><p>“Oh?” Amity looked surprised.</p><p>“I saw her look in from across the street.” Luz nodded towards the patio door. “She was alone.”</p><p>“Serves her right, I suppose.” Amity crossed her arms and seemed to be smiling softly. “She doesn’t have any leverage anymore. The people who actually like Azura come here and the ones who only liked it because of Boscha dropped it when it turned back into a nerd thing.”</p><p>“I wonder what her next move will be.” Luz said. “I bet she gets a car. Kids with cars are always popular.”</p><p>“I…don’t think I care.” Amity said, almost as if it dawned on her. She really smiled, looking Luz in the eye. “She can have a million cars, but I don’t think these guys are going anywhere.”</p><p>Luz looked over Amity’s shoulder. Gus and Willow were laughing at Cliff, who was reading aloud from One Piece, doing character voices. Lydia was preparing to shoot a straw wrapper at Willow.</p><p>“Devon even asked your mom for a job application!” Amity chuckled.</p><p>“Heck yeah! Everyone can hang here forever! Us weirdoes should stick together!” Luz said and Amity laughed, reaching out and touching Luz’s shoulder the way Lydia had done to Willow.</p><p>Luz was relieved her shift was over while Amity was still there. Lydia and Cliff had gone home already, and Eda had ushered everyone else to the patio so the inside could be reserved for adults wandering in for happy hour.</p><p>Luz took off her apron and walked out to see Willow and Gus at the table. Amity was crouched down nearby, petting King.</p><p>“This is your dog, Luz?” She asked.</p><p>“Yeah, that’s King.” Luz said, reaching down to pet him and hoping her and Amity’s hands touched. “I called him that cuz he ruled over all the other puppies in his litter.”</p><p>“Cute.” Amity smiled. “He’s very…photogenic. Listen, I wanted to invite you guys to something.” She stood up and faced them. “My parents are going out of town this weekend for their anniversary, and so, I was thinking…about having a party.”</p><p>“Coo!” Luz cheered.</p><p>“I’ve, uh, never thrown a real party without adult supervision before, but I wanted to give it a shot. Maybe don’t tell your parents about the no-adult-supervision thing, but don’t worry. My brother and sister will be there, and they drive anyone to the ER if there’s a real emergency.”</p><p>“I’m…only slightly worried!” Luz’s smile didn’t fade.</p><p>“That sounds awesome! A real high school party!” Gus gasped.</p><p>“Will Lydia be there?” Willow asked shyly.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m gonna invite cool kids only.” Amity smiled.</p><p>Luz thought Amity that night when she brushed her teeth. Working was such a bummer when she wanted to hang out. Who knows what cool things Amity said that day, that Luz didn’t get to hear. She walked back into her bedroom and paused as her gaze settled on King scratching his ear.</p><p>Photogenic. Amity had called King photogenic.</p><p>Bruja’s profile picture just happened to be a very handsome and regal dog with the same red collar. Amity knew, or at least strongly suspected, that King was the same dog.</p><p>King was Bruja’s dog, which meant that Luz was Bruja.</p><p>Luz stood frozen for a moment before slowly moving again. She turned off the light and crawled into bed. She lay still in the darkness for a moment before smiling. The feeling of butterflies in her stomach grew and she laughed.</p><p>Luz laughed into her pillow until she fell asleep.</p><p> --</p><p>Luz knew she shouldn’t care what Boscha was up to, but she still kept an eye on her. It was if she were Marcus’ Palisman, always keeping a wise eye on the enemy.</p><p>Boscha had taken her Azura pins off of her messenger bag and she didn’t try to talk to any of the softball girls. Luz watched to see who she <em>did </em>still have in her grasp, and unfortunately, it seems a couple of girls still followed her around.</p><p> Luz just shook her head sadly and continued on.</p><p>Finally, Friday arrived. Luz took a break during her shift to slide into the seat beside Willow and Gus who were sharing cinnamon buns.</p><p>“So, I was thinking we go to the mall super early tomorrow to buy new swimsuits for the party.”</p><p>“New?” Willow took a sip of tea. “I was just going to wear the one I already have.”</p><p>“And your outfit?” Luz prompted.</p><p>“Um… a t-shirt and pants?”</p><p>“Your pajamas?”</p><p>“Luz! Now you’re making me nervous!”</p><p>“Sorry, it’s just I have so much money saved up, and I figured now’s the time to buy something with it. If you don’t wanna go, Gus can go with me, right?” She looked at him.</p><p>“Uh, sorry Luz.” He ducked down sheepishly. “I don’t really wanna spend the morning watching you shop for clothes.”</p><p>“Fine, I’ll just go by myself.” Luz leaned back and crossed her arms.</p><p>“Why don’t you ask Amity?” Willow smiled.</p><p>“Because I’m buying the stuff for <em>her </em>party! It’s supposed to seem like it’s stuff I already had! Ugh.”</p><p> Luz got up and went back to the kitchen. She couldn’t believe they weren’t going to help her or seem to get why she was nervous. Shouldn’t Willow be nervous too if Lydia was going? Or maybe Willow was fine because she was always sort of nervous about everything.</p><p>“Hey, will you drive me to the mall tomorrow morning?” Luz asked Eda as she walked into the kitchen.</p><p>“Sure, Kid. What’re you getting?” Eda asked.</p><p>“An outfit for a party tomorrow… that reminds me, can I go to Amity’s party?” Luz gave Eda her best innocent grin.</p><p>“What kinda party?” Eda narrowed her eyes.</p><p>“Just swimming and movies, like a sleepover thing.” Luz prayed Eda wouldn’t ask about boys or adult chaperones. She wasn’t that good at lying.</p><p>“Yeah, you can go.” Eda patted her head and Luz grinned.</p><p>Saturday morning, Luz jumped out of bed and got dressed to go to the mall. She wore a plain t-shirt and jeans so she could easily swap out in the dressing rooms before opening her dresser drawer.</p><p>The tin box of her tip savings was hidden in the back. Luz carefully took out a large chunk, counting for at least a hundred, before putting it in her purse.</p><p>Eda was just getting up and insisted on having coffee before even getting dressed, so Luz sat up on the counter and tried not to groan impatiently. Amity had said the party started at six, which was literally nine hours away, but Luz wanted plenty of time to look at everything.</p><p>Finally, Eda was ready. Usually when she wanted to go somewhere, Luz would either walk or ride her bike if it was a bit too far. Both Gus and Willow lived within walking distances, as did the café. Eda only drove her for the mall and the movies, which were both downtown.</p><p>Luz sat up front and played with the radio while Eda yawned and rolled down the windows. It was early, but Saturday traffic meant that it still took longer than Luz wanted it to.</p><p>“Okay, text me to pick you up.” Eda said as she pulled into the parking lot.</p><p>“Okay!” Luz jumped out and ran towards the doors.</p><p>As she entered in through the food court, it occurred to Luz how she’d never been here completely alone. As a kid, Eda dragged her here to get new clothes or to sit on Santa’s lap, and as she got older, she came here with her friends.</p><p>Even though they occasionally split up to shop individually, Luz still met back up with them to show off their purchases. But now Luz had no one to ask an opinion of. She had to trust she knew what looked cute to both her and Amity.</p><p>Before, Luz always shopped at those stores geared specifically for middle school girls, with lots of sparkles and Hello Kitty, but not this time.</p><p>Luz was in high school, which meant she was going to shop at a cool store. She went to the directory and traced the path to one of the cool stores.</p><p>Luz went up the escalator, resisting the urge to pretend she was flying on it, and went into the store. There were tons of shirts and jeans, but it was almost a bit too…old.</p><p>“Are you looking for something for your mom, miss?” A saleswoman asked. Luz frowned and walked out.</p><p>After trying out almost every store around, Luz had lost an hour without even trying anything on yet. She finally skidded to a halt and ducked behind a plant when she saw some girls from her school coming down the walkway with pretzels.</p><p>“Look! That’s the shirt you have!” One of them pointed to a display window nearby.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m gonna get the jeans next time too.” Her friend nodded. “Or maybe I’ll wait until it gets cold again, and get the bikini instead.”</p><p>Luz waited for them to pass before popping out and grinning. Bingo! Where cool teens shopped! Luz went inside and looked at the shirt the girl had mentioned.</p><p>It was a black button down shirt with the shirt tails tied in a knot in the front and with the sleeves rolled up. Luz grabbed it, along with some jean shorts that had rips in them. The rips were cool.</p><p>As for swim suits, Luz chose one that was purple with silver stars. It was way better than her old one-piece was that was basically for a child. She was a cool teen now.</p><p>Luz was just looking for some kind of loungewear for pajamas when she heard a familiar voice. She peered over the rack and gasped.</p><p>“What? You’re busy again?” Boscha sighed. She seemed to be on the phone with someone. Before Luz knew what she was doing, she ducked down into the clothes and peered out between them, spying.</p><p>“I thought your parents were out of town? You really don’t wanna do anything all weekend, Amy?”</p><p>Amity. Boscha was talking to Amity, Luz realized. And Amity was blowing her off, keeping the party a secret. Luz felt so proud.</p><p>“You know, ever since you started going to stupid tennis lessons, we never hang out! Maybe I should tell my dad to buy me lessons at the country club too.” Boscha said. Luz tried to imagine what Amity was saying. Whatever it was, Boscha didn’t like it.</p><p>“I really can’t come over tonight? Who has tennis at night!?”</p><p>Luz prayed Amity wouldn’t give in. The last thing any of them needed was Amity letting Boscha come over, not when she’d done such a good job of cutting her out. Luz’s only gripe was that Amity lied about tennis practice instead of just telling her that she didn’t wanna be friends anymore.</p><p>“Fine! Be sick, then! I hope you <em>don’t </em>feel better!” Boscha hung up and stormed out of the store, the clerk looking up with the commotion.</p><p>With her gone, Luz hurried to buy her stuff before she came back, and left carefully in case she happened to run into her.</p><p>Luz ate something from the food court while she waited for Eda to pick her up. It was nice to eat something she couldn’t get just any old time from the café.</p><p>And she thought about Amity. She was super proud of her for telling Boscha no, even if she didn’t say the real reason was ‘<em>I have new friends now and we all hate you.’</em></p><p>Then Luz thought about Azura. Luz remembered how Amity might be on to her secret. She only hinted it once, but it was a good hint.</p><p>“Should I tell her?” Luz thought to herself. She remembered once that she thought Amity wouldn’t like Azura anymore, but now she thought the opposite. All of her new friends would probably be really hyped, but maybe she wasn’t ready for so much at one.</p><p>“Just Amity.” Luz decided. “I just want to tell her…tonight…maybe…after everyone’s asleep or something.”</p><p>Her imagining of them, whispering together and Luz revealing something big was exciting. Maybe Amity would share a secret in return. Luz had no idea what of, but just the thought made her blush.</p><p>“Ah—“ Luz jumped as her text tone went off.</p><p><strong>EDA:</strong> I’m here.</p><p>Luz grabbed her shopping bag and tossed her food wrappers. It was now six hours to the party, Luz realize as she checked her phone.</p><p>That was the perfect amount of time to practice what she was going to say.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>pls comment i'm lonely in quarantine.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was hot as Luz and her friends walked down Amity’s street towards her house. Eda had dropped them off at the gate in front of the neighborhood and Luz had felt bad about insisting they carry their bags the rest of the way, but moms and parties didn’t mix. She was just glad her friends seemed too enthralled to complain.</p><p>“Look how huge these houses are!” Gus gasped as they walked.</p><p>“I’ve always passed by this neighborhood, but I’ve never imagined I’d know anyone who lived here.” Willow said.</p><p>Luz had to admit that she too was impressed by these big mansions and the fact that someone from their class lived in one. She had no idea what kind of work Amity’s parents did, but it had to be pretty important by the looks of the huge front lawns.</p><p>Almost every house had a large privacy fence behind them, and Luz could hear splashing and kids yelling, almost as if every house had a pool too.</p><p>Up ahead, Luz could see a house with several cars outside, the full driveway spilling out so that some were parked way down the street.</p><p>“Is that Amity’s house?” Willow asked as Luz took out her phone to check the address.</p><p>“How many people are here?” Gus asked, wide-eyed. “Or… do her parents own all those cars?”</p><p>“Yep, that’s the place.” Luz squared her shoulders and walked up. Willow and Gus kept up.</p><p>Luz walked around a black truck taking up most of the street. From this close, Luz could hear the low thrum of music from inside. She froze as she stepped off the curb into the grass.</p><p>Amity was standing in the middle of the yard looking at her phone. Despite wearing her new clothes, Luz felt overdressed in comparison. Amity was wearing only a black bikini top and jean shorts. She looked up at them and grinned.</p><p>“Hey! There you guys are!” She shoved her phone into her shorts pockets. “Aw, I love your shirt!”</p><p>“Ah…” Luz wanted to thank her, as per a normal conversation. Actually, there were a lot of very normal things she could have said, had she found the ability to speak at all. This was suddenly super intimate. She was going to be sleeping in the same house as Amity tonight. A huge house, but still.</p><p>“Are all these cars yours!?” Gus asked, clutching his backpack straps.</p><p>“No!” Amity laughed. “Sorry-- my brother and sister invited their friends over since our parents are gone. Don’t worry, I told Ed and Em to keep out of our way. Come on, I’ll show you where you can drop your stuff.”</p><p>Luz was reminded she hadn’t said anything. She was nervous but refused to let that get to her too much. Over thinking was a surefire way to take all the fun out of tonight.</p><p>“I, uh, got this shirt at the mall.” Luz said as they walked through a tile-floored foyer past the living room and towards the stairs.</p><p>“Cool! I need to go summer shopping, but I’m not the best at knowing what looks good.” Amity said.</p><p>“I could help.” Luz knew she sounded eager. That was okay, she was eager. Amity smiled back.</p><p>“You’d tell me what looks good?”</p><p>“Consider me your personal stylist!” Luz said, turning towards Amity and daring to take her hands. “You’d make the perfect model.”</p><p>Amity looked surprised, pleasantly so with a smile on her face before laughing. Luz was just glad that Gus and Willow seemed preoccupied with peeking into the living room, admiring the giant television.</p><p>Though the open kitchen door, Luz could hear laughter and yelling as Edric and some older teens seemed to be raiding the fridge.</p><p>Amity led them up some carpeted stairs to the second floor. Luz admired some family photos on the wall, one of toddler-aged Edric and Emira posing with a baby that much have been Amity.</p><p>Amity’s room was huge, with soft rugs covering pink carpet. She had a huge window complete with bench seat that overlooked the backyard. There was an even bigger bed stacked with pillows.</p><p>“You guys can just drop your stuff on the floor.” Amity crossed the room and opened a door to a bathroom. “And if you need to change into your swimsuits.” She grabbed a towel off the back of the door.</p><p>Willow was wearing hers under her clothes, and Gus planned on just swimming in the shorts he was wearing. Only Luz had to actually change, though she did not regret wearing her cute party clothes, even if only for one compliment.</p><p>She tried not to waste too much time exploring the fancy private bathroom, though she did have to admit she was super jealous of the huge garden tub and vanity lights on the mirror.</p><p>“Ready!” Luz stepped out wearing her new swimsuit.</p><p>“Cute!” Willow said. Luz had shown her it when she packed, but this was her first time wearing it.</p><p>Luz dared glance to Amity for her reaction. Amity was draping her towel around her neck and slipping on a pair of sandals that were by the door. When she did glance over at Luz, it was with a shy smile and an echo of agreement at Willow’s opinion.</p><p>“Very.” She nodded.</p><p>The kitchen was empty when they passed through the back door. Luz was just thinking that they were lucky Edric and Emira’s friends were back upstairs, when they opened the backdoor and walked out to the pool.</p><p>A group of rowdy teens had taken over the deck. All of the pool chairs were pulled together and piled on with seniors. They were all laughing and shouting. Emira was nuzzled up with some shirtless guy who, by the look of the beard, was way too old to be in high school, and Edric was chasing a girl in a yellow dress around the deck.</p><p>Maybe a few months ago, Luz would have been striving for their attention, jealous even that they had their own friends, but now she was trying not to feel annoyed at their very presence.</p><p>Amity seemed to share Luz’s sentiment. She turned red in the face and stalked over to where the blaring music was coming from someone’s phone plugged into a speaker. She unplugged it and all of the teens looked over.</p><p>“HEY!” Amity growled at Emira, who was closest. “We’re using the pool, remember!?”</p><p>“Calm down, Mittens.” Emira leaned off the guy’s chest and crossed her arms. “We’re only gonna be out here for a second.”</p><p>“Yeah, we didn’t wanna smoke inside.” Edric gave them the same overly-charming grin that would have flustered Luz before.</p><p>Luz watched as Edric took what looked like a small cigarette from the bearded guy. Amity scoffed in disgust and turned away, crossing her arms as Edric took a lighter out of his pocket. As he inhaled before passing it to Emira, Luz realized with a shocked feeling that it was not just a cigarette.</p><p>She then realized it was not just soda that the older teens were passing around from a cooler. She recognized the label, after all, from the stash of stuff they served at the cafe bar.</p><p>“Sorry.” Amity muttered to Luz. “They’ll leave. Let’s just ignore them for now.”</p><p>Gus didn’t seem to mind and was already running to the pool. The older teens seemed uninterested in swimming, so they were not disturbed as they got in the water.</p><p>Amity sat down at the edge and put her legs in the water and Luz followed suit, sitting close enough so that their shoulders brushed. Amity smelled like sunscreen.</p><p>“Is it cold?” Willow asked.</p><p>“Nah!” Edric yelled over. “Jump in! What are you doing!? You gotta jump!”</p><p>“Shut up!” Amity snapped at him from over her shoulder as Willow stepped into the shallow end from the stairs.</p><p>“Aw, lighten up, Mittens!” Edric laughed. “You wanna beer?”</p><p>Luz had to admit that seeing Amity get so red-faced angry was sort of cute, but mostly she felt for her. It couldn’t be easy having siblings who invaded your space, in what seemed to be the one time Amity asked them to leave the backyard to her for the day.</p><p>But to Luz’s surprise, Amity didn’t get angrier. She just smirked as she if she’d just found a hidden ace up her sleeve.</p><p>“Sure.” She said. Luz gasped softly and the girl in yellow giggled at Edric’s shocked expression.</p><p>“You’re serious?” He asked flatly.</p><p>“Yep.” Amity smirked.</p><p>“And if I don’t give you one...you’re telling mom and dad about the beer?”</p><p>“And the weed.”</p><p>Luz watched in awe the way Amity did not back down, her and Edric’s gazes locked, his eyes narrowing as if he were somewhere between angry, impressed, and just trying to call her bluff.</p><p>Gus silently swam over, watching the exchange with rapt attention, his eyes and nose above the water reminding Luz of a crocodile.</p><p>Finally, Edric took a can of beer from the cooler and placed it down on the ground nearby. Amity’s gaze didn’t waver until he placed a second can beside it. The senior girl giggled loudly again and the rest of Edric’s friends seemed to be snickering.</p><p>“Come on.” Edric stood up and picked up the cooler. “Let’s go back upstairs before my baby sister cries.”</p><p>Luz turned to Amity as the older teens went back inside, hooting and laughing once more in their carefree way.</p><p>“That was impressive!” Luz said as Amity pulled her legs out of the water and went to fetch the cans and bring them over. “I always thought older siblings would be impossible to stand up against.”</p><p>“They’re really not so bad...most of the time.” Amity smiled and slipped her legs back into the water. “I honestly think they were just trying to show off.”</p><p>Amity opened one of the cans with a deafening crack. Luz watched out of the corner of her eye and caught Willow and Gus staring as well. Amity raised the can to her lips before looking up at them.</p><p>“What?” She seemed amused.</p><p>“You’re really going to drink that?” Willow’s voice sounded tinier than usual.</p><p>“Sure. It’s a party, isn’t it?” Amity smirked. Luz couldn’t help but think of  Amity still as the girl who studied and did homework over every meal. As if she knew what Luz was thinking, Amity shrugged. “I have a perfect four point five GPA… I think I deserve to have a little fun.”</p><p>“I have a perfect GPA too, but I’m gonna refrain.” Gus sank back under the water.</p><p>“Willow?” Amity looked over at her. “It’s okay to say no.”</p><p>“No.” Willow shook her head, blushing.</p><p>“Luz?” Amity looked at her and Luz felt her heart pound. “You really can say no.”</p><p>Luz knew Amity meant it. Somehow, this felt very unlike those situations they were told about in elementary school—that someone was going to offer you something like this and then force you to take it or risk getting bullied—this felt like a genuine choice.</p><p>“Okay.” Luz agreed.</p><p>Luz could feel Gus and Willow’s eyes on her as Amity smiled and took a drink of the can. Luz watched her face, noting the slight grimace as she then passed it to her.</p><p>Luz tried to image what Eda would say. She had once walked Luz through this exact situation a few weeks before she started high school.</p><p><em>Don’t you ever, ever, get into a car with someone who’s been drinking, and if I catch you drinking and driving, you’ll regret it! </em>Eda had been firm, but thinking back, technically, she never told Luz <em>not </em>to drink at all.</p><p>It was safe, right? They weren’t going anywhere else, and it was like Amity had said, they deserved to have a little fun after the stress of this semester.</p><p>Luz thought only of how Amity’s lips had just been on the can as she closed her eyes and took a big gulp. It was disgusting, to say the least, tasting like the smell of the yeast they used to make bread at the Owl House.</p><p>“Yuck.” Luz, sticking her tongue out after swallowing.</p><p>“I know, right!?” Amity laughed.</p><p>Luz pushed off the ledge of the pool and into the water, unable to bite back a smile at the sudden influx of it all. This time last year, she was awkward and lonely, latching only onto Azura for comfort, and now she was at a party thrown by a cool girl that liked Azura too. Strange that this time last year, Luz hated that girl… and now…</p><p>Lydia arrived a few moments later with a couple of girls from the softball team that Luz had served a few times at the café. They jumped right into the water, their laughter drowned out by the music as Amity turned the speakers on the deck back on.</p><p>Cliff and Devon showed up then too, Cliff immediately challenging Gus to tons of challenges such as swimming the length of the pool underwater or chicken fights. Luz had to admit it was nice seeing Gus so happy. She’d never realized he might have been feeling lonely having girls for best friends for so long.</p><p>Amity tried to both host and stay by Luz’s side, which she greatly appreciated. They passed the can of beer back and forth, Luz enjoying the thrill of it, but also wanting to drown its gross taste in swigs of coke after every sip.</p><p>“Look out!” Cliff was running down the side of the pool. “It’s Jayson!”</p><p>“You’ll never defeat me, Moxis!” Gus chased him.</p><p>“Hey,” Amity opened the door to a shed that contained a lot of supplies for the pool. Among the strainers and chlorine, there were pool toys. “Here’s your staff!”</p><p>She passed out pool noodles and inflatables, laughing as the boys took to beating each other up with the pool noodles. Lydia stepped in to act as Willow’s protector, blocking their hits with a float.</p><p>“It’s so funny.” Amity muttered, stepping up beside Luz and taking the can Luz passed her. Luz was going to let her drain the last of it. “Boscha always said I was immature for keeping all those pool toys instead of throwing them out, but now I’m starting to realize why swimming with her was always so boring.”</p><p>“She didn’t even want to play with beach balls or anything? What did you ever see in her?” Luz hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but her usual filter seemed weaker—not that it was perfect before. She turned red, shooting Amity an apologetic look.</p><p>“You know, I don’t know!” Amity laughed, seemingly unfazed as she took the second can from where she’d hidden it under one of the pool chairs. She cracked it open, took a few heavy sips, and passed it to Luz.</p><p>Despite her fuzzy filter, Luz didn’t tell Amity she’d overheard her and Boscha’s phone call—well, half of it. But she was still so proud that Amity was firm in cutting her off, and wanted to say so.</p><p> “You’re so much…different without her.” Luz managed to say, laughing when Amity did.</p><p>“Different?” Amity stepped closer to her.</p><p>“You know, how you used to be mean, and now you’re not.” Luz tried to explain, feeling the fuzziness in her brain and extra heat in her body rising to her skin.</p><p>“I’m not?” Amity suddenly stopped smiling, looking down at the ground as if in deep thought. “Good. I don’t ever wanna be like I was when I was with her. You’re different too, you know.”</p><p>“Me?” Luz took another sip of the second can, unable to mask how desperate she was for Amity to keep talking.</p><p>“Yeah, you’re not so shy.”</p><p>“Right, I’m definitely braver.” Luz agreed, feeling her heart pound.</p><p>“Brave enough to…chicken fight me?” Amity smirked, a wild look in her eyes.</p><p>“Yes!” Luz was louder than she meant to be. “You’re on!”</p><p>Amity grabbed Luz’s arm and pulled her into the water. Luz wondered if she was feeling the effects of the beer the way Luz was, but it felt somehow babyish to ask. Her own effects seemed limited to the fuzziness in her brain. She didn’t think she was actually drunk yet, and she was as close to it as she wanted to be.</p><p>Cliff and Devon agreed to fight with Luz and Amity. Devon offered Luz his shoulders and Luz was grateful, as he was taller. Amity got on Cliff’s shoulders and they faced off, Gus cheering them on and one of the other girls offering to fight whoever won.</p><p>“I haven’t done this in a long time!” Amity laughed loudly, pushing against Luz’s shoulders.</p><p>“Me neither.” Luz admitted. After all, she only ever went swimming at the community pool with Gus and Willow, and you couldn’t chicken fight with only three people.</p><p>“You’re going down…” Amity pushed her again, and Luz was honestly surprised she didn’t fall over.</p><p>“I am…not…” Luz pushed back, feeling Amity’s bare shoulders under her palms. “I will defeat you...Azura!”</p><p>“You should be Azura…” Amity grunted in return, biting back laughter.</p><p>“Why?” Luz asked, knowing the answer.</p><p>Amity didn’t have to answer. Luz imagined what she was thinking as they locked eyes. She really did know—in that moment, Luz was sure. Luz completely forgot their fight, letting her grip slacken in surprise as Amity pushed back with all her strength.</p><p>“Ahh—“</p><p>Luz fell back off of Devon’s shoulders into the water. She seemed to come to then, swimming back to the surface and watching as Amity and Cliff cheered.</p><p>“Aw, you almost had her.” Devon tried to cheer Luz up.</p><p>“Oh, me next!” the other girl swam towards Devon. “When I win, I can be Azura!”</p><p>“Okay, you’re on Gwen!” Amity said. “But you can’t be Azura. Only Luz is Azura. You can be Martina.”</p><p>“Okay.” Gwen didn’t seem to mind being reduced to a minor character.</p><p>Luz pulled herself up to the edge of the pool and watched her and Amity, that exciting buzz now increased. Amity had an excellent poker face now, but for that split second, Luz was even more convinced that she knew the truth.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Willow sat beside Luz.</p><p>“Yeah.” Luz said honestly. “Why?”</p><p>“I thought you’d be sick from drinking beer!”</p><p>“No, I feel good! Besides, we split two cans, so technically I only had about one.” Luz watched Amity get knocked off of Cliff’s shoulders. “I’m going to tell Amity tonight.”</p><p>“You are?” Willow gasped. “Are you sure?”</p><p>“Yes. Besides, I think she already knows.” Luz kicked her feet in the water. “And even if she doesn’t, I want her to know. I know everyone else is a genuine fan—it’s still weird sometimes hearing them talk about my characters—but Amity’s was the first real one! And she’s my friend.”</p><p>“Good. I’m glad you’ll tell her.” Willow poked Luz’s shoulder. “You deserve another person to be able to tell you how talented you are!”</p><p>“Willow!” Lydia called over. “Come fight me!”</p><p>“Uh, I’m not so good at—“ Willow started, but Luz gave her a push.</p><p>“Go!” She then lowered her voice. “You deserve someone too, you know.”</p><p>Chicken fights lasted as the sun went down. As the two strongest guys, Cliff and Devon were forced to hold everyone else up, and Luz wondered if their shoulders would hurt tomorrow.</p><p>Luz swam laps around the pool’s edge on her back, watching the budding stars swirling in the pink of setting sun. That feeling of fuzziness faded farther and farther away the darker it got. She stuck to soda after that, letting her sobering mind whirl with many thoughts.</p><p>“Where’s Amity?” It was dark now. Luz pulled herself out of the water and grabbed a random towel off a chair.</p><p>As if on cue, the backdoor opened and Amity stepped out onto the deck and turned off the music. “Who wants pizza!?”</p><p>There was much shouting and laughing as everyone climbed out of the pool and ran towards the delivery boxes Amity set out. With two slices in her stomach, Luz no longer felt fuzzy, though still brave.</p><p>“If I’m Azura, then who are you?” Luz asked Amity, sitting beside her on the ground.</p><p>“Hmm.” Amity seemed to think for a long moment, sipping her sprite and picking the black olives off her pizza slice. “I don’t know. Who do you think I am?”</p><p>“Maren.” Luz whispered, blushing.</p><p>“Who’s Maren? I don’t remember them.”</p><p>“She hasn’t show up yet.” Luz was shaking, her heart pounding. “But she’s really cool. You’ll love her.”</p><p>“I believe you.” Amity looked at her, smiling softly. “But I think I want to be the Palisman.”</p><p>“Really?” Luz pictured the white dove. “Why?”</p><p>“Because she’s always by Azura’s side.” Amity said. “And if I was a bird, then I could fly…and who doesn’t want that?”</p><p>Luz laughed and so did Amity, resting her hand on top of Luz’s. After everyone finished eating, it was completely dark. The boys insisted on doing a final few cannonballs by porch light as Amity went in to set up the den where they’d watch a movie.</p><p>After coming back out and instructing everyone to dry off carefully before going inside, Amity grabbed a trash bag and started collecting paper plates and soda cans that were left out.</p><p>“Need a hand?” Luz offered.</p><p>It was a quiet night, the sounds of tv and voices muffled from inside—outside, there was only the gentle sounds of crickets and frogs.</p><p>“For a first time party host, I think you did a pretty good job.” Luz held the bag open as Amity dropped trash in.</p><p>“I’m actually surprised no one got too crazy or broke anything. That usually happens when Edric and Emira have friends over.”</p><p>Luz didn’t point out that they were the only two to drink, thus lessoning the chance significantly that someone would go crazy. Apparently, they were both responsible party goers. Luz was glad she knew that about herself, at least.</p><p>The words she wanted to say still stuck in her throat, as it seemed her liquid courage had officially worn off. Every hint they’d passed back and forth should have led to this moment—some fantastic confession of something worthwhile, but Luz was only silent as Amity took the bag from her and tied closed.</p><p>“I actually forgot pajamas.” Luz looked up at her. “Do you have anything I can change into?”</p><p>Amity led Luz inside towards the stairs. Passing the den, Luz could hear everyone else changing through the channels on the tv. Upstairs, Luz could hear even louder chatter and music from one of the twins’ bedroom.</p><p>Back in Amity’s room, Luz stepped over piles of everyone else’s stuff—heavily strewn around from everyone who’d come up to change into pajamas.</p><p>“Here,” Amity handed Luz a folded stack of clothes from a dresser drawer. “Be careful. It’s custom made.”</p><p>Luz looked down at where their hands touched over the fabric of the Azura t-shirt—Luz’s water-wrinkled fingers and Amity’s sleek black nails. When she looked up, Amity was smiling. But Luz’s words were still cowered down in her throat.</p><p>“Got it!”</p><p>In the bathroom, Luz pulled her backpack close and changed out of her swim suit. It was dry now, and wound up waded in the bottom of her bag. She pulled on underwear, Amity’s shorts, and the soft custom t-shirt.</p><p>Her hair was a mess, but that didn’t matter much. The entire point of keeping short hair was that it wouldn’t take much work to comb it.</p><p>“Hey, are you done changing?” Amity knocked on the door.</p><p>“Y-Yeah.”</p><p>The door opened and Amity poked her head in. Luz could see she had changed into shorts and a t-shirt. She stepped up to the sink and grabbed her toothbrush. Luz reached into her bag and grabbed hers too.</p><p>“How much you wanna bet no one else brushed their teeth?” Amity asked jokingly.</p><p>“Judging by how no one seemed to have a problem trashing your room…everyone.” Luz said and Amity laughed.</p><p>They brushed their teeth in silence, Luz both wanting to and fearing, catching Amity’s eye in the mirror. After rinsing, Amity grabbed a packet of makeup wiped from a drawer and gently scrubbed her eyes. Luz had never seen Amity without perfect eyeliner before.</p><p>“How do you paint your right nails so neat?” Luz asked. “I always get polish on my skin and stuff…does your sister do yours?”</p><p>“Actually, I’m ambidextrous.” Amity smirked.</p><p>“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any cooler.” Luz blushed and Amity laughed, color on her own cheeks.</p><p>“I could do yours sometime, if you want.” Amity said. “You know, since you’re going to help me with shopping.”</p><p>“Y-Yeah.” Luz nodded. “I—“ There was the muted sound of the doorbell ringing from downstairs. “Huh? Who’s that?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” Amity glanced at the floor. “Everyone’s here…it must be one of my brother and sister’s friends.”</p><p>As the doorbell rang again, Luz heard of the twins’ bedroom door open and someone go downstairs. There was then the sound of someone hammering on the door.</p><p>“Amity? Are you in there?” Lydia peered into the room as Luz and Amity came out of the bathroom. “Um…someone’s downstairs.”</p><p>“Someone for me?” Amity knitted her brows in confusion.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s…” Lydia looked at the floor, and Luz was suddenly overcome with a deep sinking feeling of horror.</p><p>“It’s Boscha.” Luz said firmly and Lydia nodded.</p><p>“Yeah, Edric let her inside.” Lydia muttered.</p><p>“Shit.” Amity sighed and stormed towards the door.</p><p>Luz followed. Every regret flowered through her body. Why hadn’t she just told Amity hours ago how she felt, or about Azura? Why had she waited so long. It was too late now that someone was crashing the party.</p><p>“Well, well, well…” Boscha was standing in the living room, scowling at them as they came down the stairs. “How’s tennis practice going?”</p><p>“What is she doing here?” Amity addressed Edric instead. “She was not invited.”</p><p>“I didn’t know.” Edric looked annoyed that he was somehow trapped in sudden freshman drama. Luz had to admit he must have been confused. Boscha was probably over all the time before and he had no way of knowing it was suddenly different.</p><p>Luz moved to the side, letting Edric pass her and go upstairs. She envied him in that moment, wishing she could remove herself from this.</p><p>“Well I should have told her, I suppose.” Amity stepped off the last step and looked at Boscha for the first time. “You’re not invited.”</p><p>“Yeah, no shit!” Boscha snapped. “How do you think it makes me feel—seeing all those cars outside and knowing you were having a party without me!? How could you do that!?”</p><p>“It was easy.” Amity’s voice stayed level, though Luz’s heart pounded. “I just only invited people I actually like.”</p><p>“Oh, like her!?” Boscha locked eyes with Luz over Amity’s shoulder. Luz felt frozen in her scowling gaze, but quickly overcame it. She’d never been scared of her before. She wasn’t going to leave Amity alone in this.</p><p>“What part of <em>you are not welcome here </em>don’t you get?” Luz stepped down to stand beside Amity.</p><p>“Who’s here?”</p><p>“Shh—“</p><p>From the corner of her eye, Luz could see Willow and Gus peering in from the living room door, and everyone else’s hushed whispered as they observed. Boscha looked aghast as Lydia walked past Luz to join Willow.</p><p>“Lydia?” Boscha looked surprised. “Oh, you really came to hang out with a bunch of losers!?”</p><p>“I don’t see any losers here.” Lydia said. “Except someone who wasn’t invited.”</p><p>“Oh—“ Boscha growled, her face growing redder and redder.</p><p>Luz tried to imagine how it must feel—if she really had been innocently passing by her besties’ house only to find out about a party she wasn’t invited too. Despite the knowing sting, Luz could muster up no empathy.</p><p>“Guys, please go back to the movie, I’ll take care of this.” Amity nodded at everyone else. No one moved. Luz hadn’t expected them to.</p><p>“You bitch! You think you can just start hanging out with losers after everything I did for you!?” Boscha screamed. Luz was impressed that Amity didn’t flinch.</p><p>“Careful, Boscha. This is going to be all over school Monday.” Amity said. “Don’t say something you’ll regret—like you’re jealous of the same <em>losers </em>you claim to hate. <em>It’s not their fault they have no friends</em>, isn’t that what you said? Well, it turns out they’re better friends than you.”</p><p>“Jealous!?” Boscha screamed louder and Luz tried to mimic Amity’s cool gaze. “Yeah, right!”</p><p>“You seemed pretty jealous when Amity stopped hanging out with you before.” Luz suddenly found her voice. “That’s why you followed her to <em>our </em>club, right?”</p><p>Amity flashed Luz a pleased look—a silent agreement—but Boscha was not silent.</p><p>“Oh, fuck you and your stupid club! I was only trying to see what was so special about that stupid comic—“</p><p>“The comic you said was professional level.” Amity added, her voice still calm. Luz bit back laughter.</p><p>“You wanted to be club president.” Luz reminded her.</p><p>“You—“  Boscha turned to Luz, determined to break her. Luz was desperate to keep up her impassive demeanor. Not to laugh or flinch, but it was hard with Boscha going directly at her, her reddening face inches from Luz’s. “What if I did, huh!? You think I couldn’t like it because you liked it first!?”</p><p>“You didn’t even really care about it! You only liked it because you were trying to keep Amity from having other friends!” Luz couldn’t help it, she finally raised her voice.</p><p>“And you’re such a good friend?” Boscha’s icy gaze locked with Luz’s. “You didn’t start that club because you wanted Amity too!? Admit it—you tagged along just like everyone else! You like Azura because you really <em>like </em>Amity!”</p><p>Luz felt frozen inside once more, despite the tremors in her arms and legs. Boscha’s knowing sneer threatened to blur in front of Luz’s face from the tears that wanted to fall.</p><p>She knew Boscha meant like—<em>like, </em>and Luz couldn’t deny it. She couldn’t find the strength to anything but push back the stinging feeling of knowing Amity now knew, and Luz didn’t even get to say it.</p><p>But there was one thing she could say. Whether it permanently severed whatever they had here or not, Luz only wanted one last gut punch against her.</p><p>“N-No…” Luz whispered, her voice cracking as she raised her head. “That’s not why. Actually, I liked Azura before Amity even did. Before anyone at school did!”</p><p>Luz no longer felt fear over what she was doing, what she was potentially losing. Whatever happened now, she at least never had to hide anything anymore.</p><p>“—Because <em>I </em>created Azura!” Luz said firmly, a hand on her chest. “I am Bruja22!”</p><p>A deafening silence seemed to fall over the house. Luz’s gaze quickly swept over them all, but she didn’t process what she was seeing.</p><p>Gus and Willow exchanged shocked looks, as did everyone behind them. Boscha was silent, and Amity just stared at Luz, completely stunned.</p><p>“Oh…” Boscha was the first to speak. She looked torn between wanting to call Luz a liar or just denounce the whole thing. She chose the latter, actually laughing cruelly. “Well, that explains why I always thought it sucked! God, Amity, your taste is really awful!”</p><p>Luz didn’t want to stay and hear the rest. Her heart pounded and now there was nothing left to hold back the flood of emotions. Luz turned and bolted.</p><p>Everything was a blur. She ran past the living room to the end of the foyer and out the front door. Among the gasps and voices, Luz could clearly hear Amity among them.</p><p>“Luz! Wait!”</p><p>Luz wasn’t sure where she was going. The night hair was warm and her feet were bare, running over damp grass and onto the street. The asphalt wore on the bottom of her feet and she froze once more.</p><p>Where else could she go!? There were only private yards lining both sides of the street.  Luz stopped running, shaking as she stood rigid in the middle of the street. She didn’t even notice the headlights growing brighter and brighter.</p><p>“Ahh--!” Luz turned and gasped, cowering as the car slowed down.</p><p>Someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back as the car blared its horn and passed. Luz crumbled into a heap in the yard, panting.</p><p>“Luz…” Amity was panting too.</p><p>Luz was numb, letting Amity lead her by the hand through the yard. Luz collapsed into the grass in the shadow of the house. Amity sat beside her.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Luz whispered, voice breaking.</p><p>“For what?”</p><p>“I…I wanted to tell you…”</p><p>“You didn’t have to tell me anything, Luz.” Amity’s hand tightened in hers.</p><p>“But, I wanted to.”</p><p>They were silent for a moment. The gravity of it all was weighing, crushing against Luz. Maybe no one would care, but it was still her biggest secret, and it was out there.</p><p>“You knew, didn’t you?” Luz looked at her.</p><p>“I had a feeling.” Amity nodded. “It just seemed…to fit. You’re so passionate about Azura. I mean, you’re passionate about everything, but still.”</p><p>“Were you disappointed?” Luz found herself asking.</p><p>“Of course not.” Amity turned towards her, their hands still linked. “Boscha really is just jealous. She hates that you’re everything she can’t be—nice, and fun, and funny—“</p><p>“But you’re so cool!”</p><p>“So are you!” Amity blushed in the moonlight. “Luz, are you kidding me? You’re so smart and talented, and way cooler than anyone I know.”</p><p>“I’m not that good at school, though.” Luz whispered.</p><p>“So? Who cares about school?” Amity smirked and Luz gasped.</p><p>“I cannot believe Amity Blight just said that.”</p><p>Amity laughed and Luz did too, finding herself easing up, as if Amity were slowly pulling that tremendous weight off of her.</p><p>“I am sorry about what Boscha said. She was just trying to embarrass me.” Amity muttered.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“About me…having bad taste. She didn’t mean Azura. She was talking about…you.”</p><p>“Me?” Luz blinked.</p><p>“Back when I was still trying to make our friendship work, I told Boscha a secret. I told her that I thought you were really cute.” Amity was bright red now and Luz felt her heart pounding once more.</p><p>“I—I think you’re so cute! I wanted us to be alone tonight so I could tell you.”</p><p>“We’ve been alone tons tonight.” Amity giggled.</p><p>“Yeah, well, I was shy.” Luz admitted. “I thought drinking was supposed to lower your inhibitions?”</p><p>“I thought so too, but I was pretty shy even when we were sharing a drink.”</p><p>“Do you still feel shy?” Luz whispered.</p><p>“Sort of. You?”</p><p>“Sort of.”</p><p>But Luz was brave too. Though she couldn’t quite articulate all she wanted to say or how she felt, she found herself controlling her trembling.</p><p>Her hand curled in Amity’s, her other hand reaching out to tuck a stray lock of mint hair behind her ear. Amity locked eyes with her. Luz’s eyes slid closed and she wasn’t sure who leaned in first.</p><p>Luz only coherent thought, other than she couldn’t believe this was finally happening, this thing she wanted but couldn’t even articulate—she was kissing Amity—and Amity tasted like mint too.</p><p>They laid in the grass, shoulder pressed to shoulder, only looking up with the sound of footsteps padded over the lawn. Amity sat up and Luz followed.</p><p>“Willow? Gus?”</p><p>“There you are!” Gus’s phone flashlight passed over them. “Luz, are you okay!?”</p><p>“I’m fine.” Luz smiled. “Really.”</p><p>“Boscha’s gone.” Willow reported. “Amity, your sister threatened to call the neighborhood security and that really must have scared her.”</p><p>“Ha!” Amity laughed. “Guess Boscha didn’t know that Emiras was totally bluffing.”</p><p>Amity stood up, offering her hand to Luz before pulling her to her feet. Their hands stayed linked, fingers intertwined.</p><p>“How’s everyone?” Luz asked tentatively.</p><p>“Everyone’s worried about you.” Willow said. “They thought you might have went home.”</p><p>“No, I’m coming back in.” Luz took a deep breath.</p><p>“We’re right with you.” Gus said.</p><p>“So am I.” Amity squeezed her hand.</p><p>Luz walked along side them, eyes trained on the ground the entire time. Amity opened the front door and Luz only lifted her eyes when they got to the threshold of the living room.</p><p>Everyone else was flopped over the couches or sitting cross-legged on the floor. Gwen muted the television where she’d just been flipping through channels.</p><p>“Hey, guys.” Luz took another deep breath. “Sorry about all of that…drama and stuff…”</p><p>“Yo, Luz.” Cliff turned around and leaned over the back of the couch. “Are you really Bruja?”</p><p>“Yes.” Luz blushed, closing her eyes. She only opened them when she felt Amity squeeze her hand.</p><p>“That is…so sick!” Cliff grinned. “I can’t believe we all know her! We know Bruja!”</p><p>“Dude, you have to teach me how to draw something sometime!” Devon said.</p><p>“Oh, me too!” Lydia said. “I suck at drawing! I can only draw stick people!”</p><p>It went much better than Luz could have expected. She found herself smiling, her friends’ voices blurring together as they all patted her on the shoulder and asked her question after question about Azura.</p><p>They weren’t the usual questions about the plot or theories that they always debated over at the café, these were questions about the process of making Azura, real questions about her craft that she’d never answered before.</p><p>“Do you ever forget what color something is supposed to be so you go back and check the pages you already posted?” Lydia asked.</p><p>“Yes! All the time!” Luz said and they all laughed.</p><p>“How long does one page take to draw?” Gwen asked.</p><p>“Uh, line art and colors…a week or two? It depends on how much is going on in the panels.” Luz tried to explain.</p><p>“Okay, okay.” Amity spoke up and Luz was hyperaware of her every movement, every brush of their fingers. “Enough questions. You guys can badger her later at a club meeting. Let’s just watch a movie.”</p><p>Everyone settled in for the movie, fighting over who sat where or had what blanket or who got to hold the bowl of old popcorn. In the commotion, Luz wound up on the floor.</p><p>Amity sat beside her, their backs against the couch where Willow and Gus sat, a throw blanket over their laps. Their hands stayed linked under the covers, and Luz’s heart pounded whenever Amity’s fingers traced her own.</p><p>Luz didn’t really pay attention to the movie.</p><p>None of the Blight children had mentioned the fact that their parents were expected home by noon the next morning. Luz awoke to the sound of hung-over seniors thumping down the stairs from Edric’s room. They all groaned at the sunlight as they piled into their cars outside.</p><p>Luz lifted her head from the couch pillow she’d been sleeping on. Amity opened her eyes, her hand inches from Luz’s.</p><p>“What time is it?” Gus yawned. He was one of the few who’d both brought and thought to use their sleeping bag, rather than just leaving it upstairs in Amity’s room.</p><p>“Almost ten.” Amity said, quickly getting up to pick up the stale popcorn bowl from the coffee table. “Sorry to kick everyone out…but…”</p><p>“Nah, we get it.” Cliff crossed to where Devon was passed out on the carpet without a pillow or blanket and gave him a kick. “I can drive everyone who needs a ride. Get up, dude.”</p><p>“This was a really fun party!” Lydia had been laying next to Willow. “Thanks for having us!”</p><p>“Yeah, this was dope!” Gus agreed.</p><p>Amity blushed nervously and promised to have them all over again soon. Luz imagined that with summer break coming up in just a few weeks, they could sleep over plenty then. The thought made her blush too.</p><p>Luz followed everyone upstairs and gathered her own stuff from Amity’s room. She changed back into her cool mall clothes and carefully folded the Azura t-shirt back up. She waited for the room to clear, just her and Amity, before handing it back over.</p><p>“Thanks for letting me wear it.” Luz said, making sure their hands brushed.</p><p>“I…I want you to keep it. You should, after all, considering—“</p><p>“I can’t take this!” Luz gasped. “Besides, you deserve it more. Aren’t you Bruja’s number one fan?” She smirked, as did Amity.</p><p>“Well, I’m definitely Luz’s.” Amity replied.</p><p>Luz laughed, this time sure to make sure she was the first to lean in. Amity kissed her back, not seeming to mind when they both broke into laughter.</p><p>Luz stood in Amity’s driveway with Gus and Willow, holding their bags as they waited for Eda. This time, Luz didn’t mind if Eda drove right up to the house.</p><p>“Shot gun!” Devon and Gwen scrambled into Cliff’s car just as Eda pulled up to the sidewalk beside him.</p><p>“Rocking party! See ya’ nerds at school tomorrow!” He honked the horn loudly and Eda looked over in annoyance as Amity blushed. “Warriors of Peace forever!”</p><p>“Tell Eda I’m coming.” Luz nodded as Willow. She and Gus went to climb in the backseat as Luz turned to Amity. “This…really was fun.”</p><p>“Nothing turned out exactly like I planned, but yes, it was.” Amity leaned in close to Luz before reaching down to squeeze her hand. “It was perfect.”</p><p>“Listen,” Luz lowered her voice, unable to stop smiling despite knowing Eda could see her. “I’m gonna take the dinner shift tonight at the café, and—“</p><p>“I’ll be there.” Amity said instantly and Luz grinned. “I’ll just take some homework with me and tell my parents I’m studying.”</p><p>“You’re actually going to study, aren’t you?”</p><p>“Maybe a little.” Amity giggled. “Now, uh, I gotta get back in and vacuum up popcorn kernels. Then there’s laundry, pool straining, and pretty much erasing all evidence that you guys were ever here.”</p><p>“Sounds fun. See you tonight!”</p><p>Luz reluctantly let their hands part before walking to the car. She got into the passenger seat beside Eda and watched Amity go back in as they drove away.</p><p>“Party fun, guys?” Eda asked tentatively.</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“Yeah!”</p><p>Luz let her friends answer. She was still enjoying the tiny remnants of Amity’s warmth in her hands.</p><p>After dropping Gus and Willow off at their own houses, Luz prepared to keep the ride in silence to avoid any invasive questions. She reached and turned the radio volume up and a second later, Eda turned it down.</p><p>“Hey, kid,” She started. “Not to get all up in your business…but those goons honking their horns…they were boys at that party. You aren’t dating any of them, are you?”</p><p>“No!” Luz laughed lightly.</p><p>“Oh, good.” Eda said and Luz breathed in relief that that was all. But then Eda spoke again. “But there was someone at the party you liked?”</p><p>“N—“ Luz prepared to lie. She turned to face the window and found that Eda’s knowing expression seemed to follow. She looked back, feeling a sudden weight lift off of her. It was okay. “Yes. Yeah, there is someone I like. It’s someone who comes to the Owl House a lot.”</p><p>“Oh?”</p><p>“Yeah. Amity Blight.” Luz felt her heart pound and knew her face was red.</p><p>“Oh…yeah, I know her. The twins’ little sister, right?” Eda smiled.</p><p>“Yeah, that’s her.” Luz nodded.</p><p>All of her nerves seemed to fade as Eda smiled back at her. She was reminded of what Eda said about her, knowing from the day she was born that there was something special.</p><p>Despite being rough around the edges, Luz loved Eda more than anything, and hiding so much of herself this past year had taken a toll. That tiny wall had gone up and Luz realized now that she didn’t like being alone on one side of it.</p><p>“Hey, Ed—“ Luz looked over at her. “Mom, can I tell you about something?”</p><p>“Anything.” Eda pulled into their driveway and turned to Luz, smiling.</p><p>“It’s…something I’ve been working on for a while.” Luz began.”</p><p>“A drawing?” Eda asked, raising her brow when Luz looked surprised. “I see your napkin doodles all the time.”</p><p>“Sort of.” Luz chuckled. “It’s more than just one, though. It’s a whole comic. I write and draw the entire thing myself, and I’m really proud of it. The thing is, it got kinda popular… and then everyone at school was talking about it…”</p><p>Luz found herself telling Eda the whole story, about Boscha and Amity and about how by now, Boscha was probably burning her Azura socks and planning on pretending she didn’t care about Luz being the author at all.</p><p>“So the wizard, he’s the girl’s dad?” Eda was finally caught up on the story and was asking Luz more questions as they prepped drinks at the café that evening.</p><p>“Right—I mean, no—Elder Marcus is Moxis’ dad, but no one knows that yet.” Luz explained. “They all think his daughter disappeared, but she’s really just been corrupted by a great evil force! Her real name is Marren.”</p><p>“What about when Azura and Jayson…ya’ know…?” Eda took a swig of drink. “Kill her?”</p><p>“They won’t. They’ll befriend her, you’ll see. They’re Warriors of Peace, you know.” Luz reminded her.</p><p>“Sounds great, kid.” Eda wrapped Luz in a one-armed hug as Luz prepared to take an order out.</p><p>Luz laughed, picking up the drink tray and starting for the kitchen door. She paused at the threshold, looking back at Eda for a moment and smiling.</p><p>“Hey Mom…I drank beer at Amity’s party.” Luz said. Eda stared at her for a moment before laughing loudly.</p><p>“Isn’t that a hoot. Disgusting, wasn’t it? Stick to soda, kid!” Her laughter stopped and she gave Luz a serious glare. “I mean it.”</p><p>“You got it!” Luz chuckled nervously. “Love you, Mom!”</p><p>Luz served almost all the drinks, smiling and nodding at customers and even stepping in when someone asked to talk to a manager.</p><p>Luz wasn’t worried when Gus and Willow didn’t drop by. Whatever was going to happen at school tomorrow, they’d have back no matter what.</p><p>She took the last drink—a soy latte—out to the patio. Amity sat alone at a table, textbooks spread out in front of her. She was wearing the Azura shirt.</p><p>“Hey.” Amity looked up at Luz and smiled.</p><p>“Hey.” Luz placed the latte down on the table. Amity reached out to put her hand on Luz’s.</p><p>“Hey, I didn’t get a chance to really ask last night…but will you go out with me?” Amity blushed.</p><p>Luz smiled back and pulled the opposite chair out. It was about time for her break, anyways.</p><p>“I’d love to.”</p><p>That night, Luz logged into the comic website and updated her profile for the first time.</p><p><strong>BRUJA22</strong> <strong>(Luz)</strong> – admin.</p><p><strong>AGE:</strong> 15</p><p><strong>LOCATION:</strong> Blooming Isles, CA</p><p><strong>FOLLOWERS:</strong> 25.6k <strong>FOLLOWING:</strong> 8</p><p><strong>STATUS:</strong> feeling… hopeful!</p><p>The End.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you so much to everyone who's read this story! your support has been so amazing! i hope you liked it!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if you like this story, pls consider leaving me a comment / kudos !! also, you can talk to me on twitter @kaiiidth !!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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